S1 Episode 01: Black Conscious
by firebreathingfishies
Summary: Ashley Chambers is dragged out of her world of boozy nights out and forced to flee a mysterious pursuer by an even more mysterious man with a blue box. He promises her safety, but it seems like he's only thrown her into the thick of it. Ten/OC. Complete.
1. Drunken Animals

**A/N: And thus begins the rewrite, hopefully with no typos or spelling mistakes, seeing as this is why I'm rewriting it :S **

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**Chapter One**

**Drunken Animals**

Someone released a high-pitched shriek. Someone else let out a ground shaking belch. Tony Christie demanded the way to Amarillo while two intoxicated middle aged women danced around waving the handbags and their wine glasses and laughed like drugged hyenas. A glass smashed on the floor somewhere and sixty percent of the pub celebrated with a brief cheer.

Ashley Chambers glanced up with one raised eyebrow and sighed. Stretching along the whole of the bar there were cackling, slurring creatures fighting to be the next person in line. It was bull bait. An overweight man with unfocused eyes and a putrid smell hovering around him eyed Ashley's chest unsubtly. She took one hand from the beer pump and pulled her top up while glaring at him. He blinked and looked away. She carried the pint to the end of the bar, sliding past Rodger – the other barman, and set it down. White foam spilled over the edge and slid down the glass, pooling on the bar.

'Two fifty.' She droned automatically, holding her hand out.

An elderly man with half moon glasses perched on his nose reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change. She watched as he counted two fifty in ten pence pieces, despite the fact he was holding a five-pound note in between the thumb and forefinger of his other hand. She said nothing and waited. When he finally finished, she took the shrapnel to the till and rung it up, having to count it out again as she put the coins in the correct places.

'Oi, Ashes!' a hoarse voice called to her. 'The Fosters needs changing.'

Ashley glanced around miserably to the husky voiced owner of the pub. She was about a decade older than she looked and had the dress sense of a brick. She puffed away on her cigarette, perched on a stool at the end of the bar, and swirled her glass of wine. She could easily go and change the stupid barrel herself.

Because it was her job, Ashley nodded and fought her way through the drunken rabble to the cellar door. She unlocked it, having to jimmy her keys the way she always had to, pushed it open and went inside. She leaned on the closed door for a moment, happy to be away from the letching old men and shrill women. Even the mouldy smell of the cellar was a welcome change.

As she descended the rickety staircase, she reflected on her shift. She had been on for six hours already. She had supposed to be leaving at nine o'clock, but apparently there were too little staff and too many customers to leave at her regular time. Eleven was her finishing time now – still an hour away. She was exhausted and hungry, but she didn't even have five minutes to grab a packet of crisps or anything.

She got on with the task at hand of changing the barrel, almost snapping her index finger in the process, and then trudged back upstairs to be once again amongst the drunken rabble. She went back behind the bar and moved to the first person she saw.

'What can I get you?'

'Just a coke please. No ice.'

The man was tall and quite handsome; with a slim face, well-styled hair and an all around friendly look about him. He was a far cry from the surrounding drunken morons shouting rowdily around him. He smiled at her – no, he wasn't smiling, he was _beaming_. She couldn't help but smile in return as she grabbed a glass and picked up the soft drinks tap.

'Diet or regular?' she asked automatically.

'Just regular.' He replied, still beaming at her. 'Unless you think I need the diet.'

Ashley glanced up to him again and smiled, pushing the button on the tap. This guy really did look out of place. He was clean-shaven, well groomed and well dressed in a dark pinstripe suit; good looking even if he was a bit skinny. Over the suit he wore a light brown trench coat, which she had to admit ruined the suit a little, but it had a strange charm about it. It wasn't often that polite, well-dressed and handsome men came in. She placed the glass of coke in front of him.

'One twenty please.'

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out the exact change, without even looking at it. Strange that he would know the price. There were no lists up and she had never seen him in here before. She supposed it was a lucky guess and took the money.

'Been working long?' he asked her with a smile that wasn't quite so bright, but bright enough.

'Few hours,' she replied, moving along the bar to the till. He followed her with his large brown eyes. 'Finishing soon though, thank God.'

He nodded, casting a quick glanced around the pub. It seemed easily for him, as he was at least a head above everyone else. 'You must have a lot of patience to work in a place like this,' he half sighed. 'I tell you I've seen some sights, but nothing compares to a pub on a Friday night.' He turned and smiled at her again.

Ashley smiled just to be polite and went to another customer, who ordered a pint of Carling. She moved to the pump, which happened to be right in front of the man in the pinstripe suit, and she pulled the handle. 'You get used to it.' She replied.

'You would have to.'

She smiled again and took the pint to the customer. The man was being polite enough and if the bar hadn't been so full she would have happily chatted with him, but she was practically working on her own and she was exhausted. Mindless niceties were not on her to do list tonight. She wanted to turn away these idiots with their drinks, and then go home and pass out on her bed. She wanted to end the conversation before it started, and more importantly before she was rude.

'Got to say I love your hair.'

It was harder to smile this time as she pushed a hand through her bright red hair. She and her housemate, Manny, had decided to bleach it last night. But then she decided she didn't suit blonde and so after two bottles of cheap red wine they put on a luminous red hair dye that had almost cost Ashley her job.

'Let me guess, spur of the moment?'

'Is it that bad?'

'No. Not really.' He smiled broadly at her, and leaned his forearms on the bar. 'You suit it.'

Ashley eyed him with an amused smirk and moved further down the bar. It wasn't exactly rare for any of the patrons to try it on with her – normally by the end of the night she had about ten pieces of scrap paper with phone numbers scrawled on them to throw in the bin. Most of them would probably try to pull a drainpipe if the opportunity arose, but the way that man had admired her hair with such sincerity it made her wonder if he was in fact playing for the other team. Which would be a shame, seeing as he was the only decent man in the place. She glanced back over to him as she pulled a pint for another customer. He was still smiling at her. He saluted her with one finger when he caught her eye. She smiled shyly and looked away, wondering what it was he wanted from her.

Never in a million years would she guess what that was.

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An hour or so had passed and Ashley's legs felt numb. The bar was empty apart from an elderly couple, a lonely drunken man rambling incoherently to the new bar stag and the man in the pinstripe suit, who was trying to fathom out the fruit machine. Finally seeing her chance to eat, Ashley snatched a packet of crisps and dropped fifty pence into the till. She perched on one of the stools at the end of the bar and ripped the bag open impatiently.

Halfway through the packet, while her boss was calling for everyone to '_get out and go home, if you've got one_,' Ashley felt someone brush past her – actually sending a chill up her spine. She shuddered, and then flinched at the sound of something hitting the floor. At first she thought it was only a coin, but when she looked down she saw a silver key. It was only small, no bigger than a padlock key. She leaned over and scooped it up. When she looked around to see who it was who had brushed by her, she saw the man in the pinstripe suit leaving. She hopped down off the stool and hurried after him.

'Hey, you dropped your…'

Ashley looked both ways up the street, but it was deserted. She frowned. Unless he had the walking speed of a roadrunner, he should have still been on the street. She guessed he must have taken a shortcut up one of the alleys or something – obviously not familiar with the amount of muggers in this area. With a shrug, she turned to go back inside, but she heard something that made her stop. She paused and listened. A strange sound filled the air, something she had never heard before. It was distant. Sounded mechanical but at the same time unreal. She listened until the sound faded away to silence. She put it down to someone's bad taste in rave music, and went back inside.

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_(Re-written)_


	2. Second Times A Charm

**A/N: Added a bit more insight into Ashley's thoughts and changed some dialog in this one. Nothing majorly extreme... Heh it was fun to write again though :D**

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**Chapter Two**

**Second Time's A Charm**

'Bread. Where's the bread? Did you not buy any?'

Ashley stopped chewing and glanced up from her overfilled bowl of Coco Pops. A thin line of chocolate milk slid down her chin, but she was too busy thinking of an excuse to why she didn't pick up the bread yesterday. She had been in the store, right in front of the bread. _Staring_ at it in fact – but for some reason she hadn't picked it up. She chewed slowly and shrugged. 'I didn't,' she replied, voice distorted by the cereal. 'You went shopping last.'

Manny, her housemate and best friend of five years, turned and scowled. His blonde hair was ruffled and his eyes were bloodshot. While she had been working an unnecessarily long shift, he had been out drinking. But now he had to go to work at the post office while she could do whatever the hell she wanted, which would consist of lying around doing nothing all day.

'Yeah,' he frowned. 'But you went to the store yesterday. Before you went to work. I asked you… no, _told_ you to get some bread.'

Ashley shrugged once again and shovelled another spoonful of cereal into her mouth so she wouldn't have to answer him.

'God I'm so sick of this!' Manny cried, tossing the tub of butter back into the fridge angrily. 'We _never_ have any decent food! The kitchen is a mess!' He pointed dramatically at a small pile of unwashed dishes. 'And the bloody landlord is still raving about that tenner we owe him.'

Ashley pointed her spoon at him and strained to swallow the huge mouthful of coco pops. 'That tenner _you_ owe him,' she corrected, eyes watering a little. 'I gave all my rent. And anyway, you have about sixty quid. I saw it on the coffee table this morning. Just give it to him and he'll be off our backs.'

'No.' Manny huffed. 'I don't want to give him the satisfaction. He said he would pay me back the money to replace the bathroom doorknob. He didn't so I'm taking action.'

Ashley rolled her eyes. 'Well your controversial revolution is only going to get us kicked out.'

'I don't care.' Manny snorted. 'I'm sick of it here anyway.'

'Oh stop it, Man. You're just hung over. Crabby, I think is the technical term.'

Manny sighed dramatically. 'Oh I'm going to work.' He headed for the door. 'And can you sort those dishes out if you're not too busy doing nothing? Thanks.'

She watched him leave with one eyebrow raised, and then jumped as he slammed the front door noisily behind him. She sighed, shook her head, and finished off her cereal, leaving the empty bowl in the sink before heading off to have a shower.

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After a shower Ashley felt more awake. She checked her reflection in the oversized mirror beside the front door, which Manny had insisted on getting since he was such a vain creature, and reached in her pocket for her keys. Her fingers settled on something unfamiliar and she scooped it out with a frown. She turned the little key (which felt strangely warm despite it had been in her jacket pocket at the bottom of the stairs all night) over in her hand and sighed. She had meant to leave it behind the bar. That man probably went back to the pub looking for it but she had it in her pocket. The poor sod probably had to sit on his doorstep all night.

She dropped the key back into the darkness of her black leather jacket and headed for the door, stopping in the doorway to put her foot on the frame. She performed this ritual every morning. She pulled the laces on her worn Doc Martin boots as tight as she could and then checked her other foot. Before leaving, she ran her fingers over the black mark she had left on the painted wood and decided it would probably be a good idea to clean that off before Manny got back.

Her street was nothing special. The garden gate creaked as she pushed it open and broken glass crunched under her boots. She glanced down at it briefly. There had been a carryon out here the night before; raised voices and the sound of smashing glass. That was nothing new though. The kids around here were little mini-gangsters, fleeing around on BMX bikes instead of with blacked-out windows.

She continued up the street to the bus stop where she would jump on the bus into town. About fifty yards from the stop she glanced over her shoulder to see the bus trundling down the road. She ran to the stop. She might have missed it if the driver had actually been doing over twenty miles an hour. She hopped on, had a miniature disaster where she couldn't for the life of her find that five pence to make up her fare to eighty-five, and then sat down on the nearest available seat.

'S'cuse me,' a polite voice came from beside her. 'You're on my coat.'

Ashley glanced around to see a surprisingly familiar face smiling back at her. It was the dark haired man from the pub the night before. She blinked at him for a moment, before lifting up. 'Oh, sorry.'

'No problem.' He smiled back and retrieved his coat. He stood up, pressed the bell, and went to get off.

Ashley watched him in bewilderment. He was already off the bus and heading away with his hands tucked in his pockets when she remembered about the key in her pocket. She went to stand, but the bus jerked as it began to move again and she dropped back into her seat. She shook the uneasy feeling that was creeping up her spin and turned her head to face the window.

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_Re-written_


	3. Chocolate and Wine

**A/N: Re-written chapter. It was amazing how many frigging typos there were in this lol.

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**Chapter 3**

**Chocolate and Wine**

'I can't work again tonight, Martha.' Ashley sighed into the phone receiver, trying to stop the sigh turning into a groan. 'I've made plans.'

'But Ben has dropped me in it,' the hoarse voice insisted from the other end of the phone. 'I can't get in touch with Cathy and I'm supposed to be at a party tonight.'

Ashley frowned. _Figures_, she thought bitterly. _Too busy getting smashed to run her own pub._

'I'm really sorry, but I just can't make it. I can work tomorrow, but not tonight.'

Martha snorted. 'Damn right you'll be working tomorrow. I want you in five 'til twelve.'

_Because you're a alcoholic witch_, Ashley scowled. 'No problem.'

Martha hung up and Ashley tossed the phone across the couch. She sat for a moment, staring at it bitterly. She hated her job, really hated it. But if she wanted to keep paying her rent and have enough money to be moderately happy, she would have to keep working. At least until she found a better job. Which was probably unlikely taking her rather unspectacular skill set.

She picked up the TV remote and began to flick through the channels. Manny hadn't come back yet, even though it was past seven. She guessed he had gone off the Peter's, his boyfriend. He actually didn't spend much time with Ashley anymore. Not since they moved in together, which was a little weird. They had been best friends since college and had met in an art class when they were seventeen. Four years later and they moved in together. A year after that and they hardly spoke to one another.

She turned off the TV, suddenly not in the mood for it. She had no idea why she was suddenly feeling so irritable, but she was and it was putting a downer on her quiet night.

'Chocolate,' she mumbled. 'Chocolate and wine. Sorted.'

She wandered off to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge door. She pushed aside the day old takeaway box, a few bags of salad that looked way past their use-by dates and finally found what she had been looking for snuggled between the butter and the cheese. She smiled and took out the bar of white chocolate and pulled the bottle of red wine out of the side compartment. With a satisfied smile she knocked the door shut with her hip and headed back into the living room.

'Here's to me.' She said happily as she settled back on the couch. She had a tendency to talk to herself when she was alone. Or when there were people around. Or at any occasion actually. She uncorked the bottle and filled a ready and waiting glass on the table. She snuggled back and turned the TV back on. After a few minutes of channel surfing she settled with a cheesy sci-fi movie about a big bosomed blonde and some badly animated puppet aliens.

* * *

A crash from outside the front door awoke her suddenly. She let out a groggy cry as the empty bottle of wine rolled off her knee and hit the floor with a hollow thump. Bleary eyed, she glanced around. The TV was still on, but apart from that the room was pitch black. She glanced at her watch, rubbing one eye. It was three am. She must have dozed off after polishing off the wine. It was nothing new.

Another crash made her remember what had woken her up. She looked up, frowning. 'Manny?' she called. 'Is that you?'

There was no sound. A car passed outside and cast an eerie beam of light that swept across the room. She got up and dashed to the light switch, flicking it on. There was definitely someone hanging around outside the front door. She could hear shuffling footsteps on the path. It was going to be one of three things; one - Manny struggling to find his keys and probably in a bad state; two – the chav teenagers from down the road trying to spook her; or three – a robber or a murderer trying to find a decent way in.

She hoped it was Manny. If it was she was going to slap him hard around the head for scaring her so much. She wouldn't be surprised if he was actually doing it on purpose. She paused by the living room door and reached behind it, wrapping her hand around the metal baseball bat her ex-boyfriend had brought back from the US for her a few years earlier. She left it behind the door just in case of situations like these.

Ashley peered down the hallway to the front door. The door had a large glass panel in the middle paned with frosted glass. The streetlight outside flooded into the darkened corridor making everything look like it was about to come alive and attack her. Her eyes widened at the silhouette on the glass. She gripped tighter onto the bat and dashed back into the front room to get the phone. She tiptoed back to the door and peered around the frame. The shape was still there.

'Manny?' she called shakily. 'Is that you?'

There was another shuffle, this one sharper, and the shadow moved to the left. She readied her finger on nine on the phone and risked a step down the hallway. She could still hear someone moving around, but the shadow had gone.

'I'm going to call the police!' she called. 'You try and get in here and I'll cave your head in!'

The person outside didn't show any signs of leaving. She jumped when she heard rattling at the window in the front room. She whirled around and looked to the window, but the curtains were drawn. She looked to the front door and saw that the shadow had returned.

_Oh christ,_ she thought in panic. _There's more than one, which means they don't give a crap if I have a bat._

'I'm phoning the police!' she called and quickly dialled 999.

Instead of the dial tone followed by the sound of dialling numbers, there was silence. She looked at the small screen. The battery was dead. She cursed loudly. Manny had insisted on getting a portable house phone. To be able to use it she would have to put it back in the cradle for ten minutes and she had a feeling that she didn't have ten minutes.

'The police are coming!' she yelled. 'Right now!' She hoped they hadn't heard her swearing.

The rattling at the window stopped. The shadow in front of the door disappeared. She stood for a moment, dead phone in one hand and metal bat in the other and waited. A minute or so passed and there was no sound from anywhere. She sighed heavily and headed back into the front room, sitting the phone in its cradle. It beeped quietly. She rested the baseball bat against the wall and slowly approached the window. She gently pushed the curtain aside and peered out.

Before she had a chance to register anything outside, the back door crashed open. She shrieked and made a dash for the bat that stood by the open door, but something beat her to it. She stared, frozen in fear, at the figure in the doorway. He was over six feet tall, dressed in a hooded jacket and a black cap. The hood and the gap concealed his face. His hands were clenched into fists by his sides. Ashley opened her mouth to scream but suddenly found herself unable to when he raised one hand. Her breath stopped in her throat and she could barely breathe, let alone scream. She staggered backwards, stumbling over the coffee table and landing hard on her backside. The hooded man approached her slowly. Helplessly, she stared up at him.

Just as she had accepted the fact that she was about to be killed or something, the unmistakable sound of metal colliding with skull rang through her ears. The hooded man staggered to the right, falling on his side. The bat dropped and a hand shot out in front of Ashley. She looked at it cluelessly, then up to the owner of that hand.

'I… I found your key.' Was the only thing she could think of to say.

The man in the dark blue suit and the brown trench coat was looking at her intensely and was breathing quite heavily. He grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet. 'Really? I was wondering where that spare key had gone. Now come on, he'll be up in a bit.'

Ashley followed the dark haired man out through the hallway and through the backdoor, not completely understanding what was going on. Out the back, he stopped and looked up and down the alley. Behind, there was crashing from inside the house.

'He's coming…' Ashley mumbled. 'You should have kept the bat!'

'Wouldn't have mattered.' The man replied. 'He doesn't stay down for long.' He began to lead her down the back alley.

'Who the hell is he?' Ashley demanded, her voice on the edge of hysterics.

'It's a long and complicated story.' The man told her as they came out onto the street. 'Which I'll probably have to tell you sometime, but for now just get those knees up okay?'

Ashley glanced over her shoulder back up the alley to see the hooded man emerging from her back garden, watching after them. She picked up the pace. She followed the stranger down the street and into another alley way a street from her home. She couldn't see the hooded man anymore but she was pretty certain he was following.

'Now what?' Ashley cried, looking around. They were trapped as far as she could see. They were at a dead end, surrounded by brick walls on three sides. There was a large blue box with the words 'Police Call Box' written around the top of it.

The man approached it casually, his hand in his pockets. 'In here.' He said.

Ashley looked at him with wide eyes as he opened the door. 'What?'

'Come on,' he told her with a shrug. 'Get inside.'

He disappeared inside. Ashley looked at the box with cocked eyebrows, and then glanced back behind her. She could hear someone approaching on the street. It didn't take a genius to figure out who that might be. She ran for the box and went inside, slamming the door behind her.

'What the hell are we going to do in here? Who the hell is that…' She trailed off and stared. She opened the door again and went back outside, backing away from the callbox and staring in horror. She peered around the side of it, and then walked around with her hands outstretched as if she would meet resistance at any moment. When she reached the doors again she stuck her head inside and frowned in puzzlement. Hearing a crash behind her, she hurried inside and slammed the doors shut, then leaned against them and stared around.

The inside was huge, despite the fact it was no more than two meters by two and about ten feet high on the outside. The ceiling must have been about twice as high, the room at least twenty times the size of how it looked on the outside. It was like something out of _Farscape_ she used to watch on Sundays with Manny. A large control panel was in the middle, a thick tube rising out of it. Something inside glowed blue. The man she had followed here was pulling and pushing levers on the control panel.

'Ashley Chambers, I'm the Doctor.' He said. 'That man out there – and there's no nice way to put it – he wants your brain. And he's not just your run-of-the-mill brain stealer, no, he's a hell of a lot stronger, quicker and smarter than your regular psychopath. So we don't want him to catch up to you, it won't be nice. Not for you, not for anyone. I know this is a lot to take on at such short notice but if you want to live you'll have to do as I say.' He turned and crossed his arms. 'Understand?'

Ashley stared at him for a moment. 'You're a doctor?'

He blinked. '_The _Doctor. It's my name.'

She nodded and looked around. 'It's bigger on the inside.'

'Yes.'

'How? Is it, like… mirrors or something?'

'There's time to explain that later.'

Ashley looked at him for a moment longer, then leaned against a nearby rail for support. 'You don't have, uh… a glass of water or anything do you?' She felt her knees turning to jelly.

'Sorry, that I don't have.' The Doctor replied. He began flicking levers and switches on the panel. A strange, mechanical sound grew around them. She held onto the rail tightly, even though she felt no sensation of movement. The sound stopped and the Doctor strode towards the doors.

'Come on then.' he said, pushing the door open.

'What? No! You said that man wanted my _brain_…'

He ignored her and went outside. Ashley stood for a moment and then followed him. Instead of the alley and the hooded man, they were at Westminster. This was strange in itself taking she lived nearly seventy miles away from London. She stopped and stared over the bridge at the Houses of Parliament. She blinked, but said nothing. She had nothing to say.

'You hungry?' the Doctor asked her. 'I could kill for some fish and chips right now.'

He headed off up the street. Ashley glanced at the police call box, then at Parliament. She rubbed her head and began to follow the Doctor up the street with a confused frown on her face.


	4. The Dream Scenario

**Chapter 4**

**The Dream Scenario**

'Out of every single chip shop I have ever been to, anywhere,' The Doctor spoke with a mouthful and pointed at his fish and chips with the small wooden fork. 'These are the best. Absolutely. No burnt and shrivelled ones either. Fantastic.'

He was perched on the back of a wooden bench facing out to the Thames. Ashley stood at the barrier with the Doctor's coat draped over her shoulders; her arms crossed over her chest and chewed her thumbnail anxiously. The night was cold but still. It was about three o'clock and there wasn't a soul around.

'There's one around the corner from mine that's pretty good.' She said absently.

The Doctor glanced up. 'Really? Better than this?'

'Never tried that. This is the first time I've been to London.'

'Well try one. Go on, they're gorgeous.'

He held the bag out for her but she didn't even turn around. She continued to stare at the river blankly and chewed on her thumbnail. The Doctor shrugged and finished them off, dropping the rubbish in the bin to his right. He wiped his hands on his thighs and joined her side, pushing his hands in his pockets.

'I bet your feeling a little disorientated. Happens after your first ride in the Tardis.'

She glanced at him. 'The what?'

'Tardis. T-A-R-D-I-S. Time and Relative Dimensions In Space.' He shrugged. 'It's a time machine.'

Ashley cocked an eyebrow and nodded. 'Right. Of course.'

'If it had been up to me I wouldn't have taken you out of your home,' the Doctor told her with a sigh. 'But I didn't have much of a choice. If it hadn't been blatantly obvious I've been keeping my eye on you. To see if he would actually turn up.'

'Were you even trying to be subtle?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Well… I'm not a big fan of the stalking thing. It's a bit creepy.'

'So you knew that… brain-stealing guy was going to come to my house tonight? Why didn't you just knock on my door and tell me?'

'You would have really believed some stranger knocking on your door in the middle of the night telling you there was someone coming to steal your brain and you had to get out right away?'

Ashley blinked. 'Well… if you were insistent enough…'

'But to answer your question, no; I didn't know he was going to be there. I was just kind of… hovering.' He shrugged. 'Good job I was though, eh?'

Ashley smirked. 'Well by the sounds of it you were pretty unprepared. I'm guessing if I hadn't had that bat then you wouldn't have been much help.'

The Doctor frowned in mock though and hunched his shoulders. 'Weeeell…'

'Thought so.'

He turned his back on the river and crossed his arms. 'Well at least I wasn't daft enough to put the thing down and go to the window.'

'Yeah, I know. It was very bimbo of me, wasn't it?'

The Doctor smiled broadly at her. She tried to smile back, but her cheeks wouldn't allow it. His smile faded slowly and he glanced away. 'You'll be okay.'

'I'm starting to really hope I'm still asleep on the couch.' Ashley sighed, rubbing her face with both hands. 'And Manny will wake me up in a couple of hours and have a go at me for not cleaning up.'

'Yeah.' The Doctor sighed. 'The whole dream scenario. Heard that a few times, let me tell you.'

Ashley frowned and turned to him, putting one fist on her waist. The trench coat covered her hands comically and she saw the Doctor smirk but she ignored it. 'You're being very blasé about the whole thing. I thought you said someone wanted my brain.' She blinked, the idea just settling in. 'My _brain_.' She blinked again. 'Why the hell would someone want my _brain_?'

The Doctor glanced up at the sky. 'Do you fancy going somewhere a bit warmer? It's getting chilly and I thought it would be rude to ask for my coat back.'

Ashley frowned, mostly out of confusion. 'Uh, okay. Where?'

He beamed at her. 'How about last week?' Without another word, he wandered off towards the blue box (or TARDIS, she remembered).

'Don't avoid the subject.' Ashley called as she followed him. 'This is pretty important, don't you think? I mean, shouldn't we call the police or…' She stopped. 'Hang on, did you say last week?'

The Doctor held the door of the Tardis open for her and smiled. 'Course I did. Come on.'

Ashley stepped past him, pulling off his coat. She stood not far inside, still amazed and a little perplexed by the sheer size of the interior. He passed and she automatically handed him his coat. With a 'thanks', he pulled it on and approached the control panel.

'Anywhere in particular you can advise?' The Doctor asked, already pulling levers. 'Oh, and you might want to hold on. She's been a little bumpy the past few years.'

Ashley grabbed onto a metal rail beside her. 'I uh…'

'Doesn't matter.' He shook his head. The blue thing in the middle began to move up and down. The mechanical whirring started up. 'Just hold on now.'

Ashley let out a cry as the room jerked. It felt like they were lifting - rapidly – straight up. She could feel everything in her stomach pushing down. 'Oooooh…' she groaned, feeling nauseous.

'It's okay!' The Doctor called from somewhere she couldn't see. Behind the controls probably, but she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes again. 'Just keep your guts in please. Don't want you spoiling the floor, okay?'

After what seemed like forever, the Tardis stopped rising. It stopped altogether. Ashley looked up, knowing the entire colour had drained out of her face. 'We here?' she groaned.

The Doctor smiled and nodded. 'Have you got a hood on that top?'

Ashley glanced down at her back hoodie that covered her purple t-shirt and nodded. 'Yeah. Why?'

He pulled her hood over her red hair and beamed again. 'To keep a low profile.'

He moved to the door and pulled it open, stepping outside. Ashley followed quickly. Outside, her pupils dilated rapidly. She hadn't been expecting daylight.

'Hang on,' she said, covered her eyes with her hand. 'Wasn't it like, four in the morning a moment ago?'

'It's September 10th.' The Doctor told her, closing the door to the Tardis and locking it. 'Exactly one week ago.'

Ashley snorted. 'Yeah right.'

'Come on, I'll prove it.'

The Doctor grabbed her hand and began to walk with her down the street. Intrigued, Ashley followed, still housing a surreal and slightly nauseous feeling in her stomach.


	5. Last Weeks Tea

**Chapter 5**

**Last Week's Tea**

Ashley looked down at the paper in front of her, her eyes wide. A cup of tea sat beside it, steaming away. _Week old tea_, she thought in amazement. This happened a week ago… but it was happening now. That tea was a week old. The paper – she had picked it up a week ago. She knew what was going to be in it even though technically she wouldn't read it for another three hours. But she was reading it_ now_ so would that mean she had always read it before…?

A sharp pain ran through her forehead and she tried to massage it away. She glanced up to the Doctor opposite. He was smiling, cup of coffee in his hands. It was obvious he knew what she was thinking.

'You'll give yourself one hell of a headache if you think about it too much.' He smiled.

'So… we're in last week.' She said, the words sounding absurd. She glanced out the window. 'This all happened a week ago… but it's, well… _now_.'

'I'm not joking you know,' he nodded. 'You'll give yourself one hell of a migraine.'

'Too late for that.'

The Doctor leaned forward. 'Right, I think we should really start talking about more pressing matters. I know this is all a little… new for you, but-'

'Hey, look!' Ashley beamed, looking out of the window. 'There's Clara!'

The Doctor followed her to a pretty brunette passing the window and rummaging in her bag. He grabbed Ashley's hand just as she reached out to knock on the window. 'Don't.' he said, quite sternly.

Smile frozen on her mouth, she glanced at him. 'What? Why? She's my friend-'

'From a _week_ ago.' The Doctor replied. 'She could have just seen you. What do you think she would do if she left you around the corner and then saw you sitting in a coffee shop? You can't interfere with the past.'

'I doubt saying hello to Clara would have some major effect on the future.' Ashley scoffed, sinking back in her chair. 'Anyway, I never saw her at all last week.'

'You'd be very surprised.' The Doctor replied. He glanced at his watch. 'Oh, actually you'll like this.' He looked out of the window and pulled his coat up over his head. Ashley frowned. 'Keep your hood up.' He told her. She pulled her hood up a little further and looked out of the window.

'What are we looking at?' she asked.

'You'll see.' The Doctor smiled.

Ashley looked out of the window; an eyebrow lowered and was just about to ask again what it was she was looking at when she saw a flash of red from the corner of her eye. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. 'Holy shit…' she mumbled.

It was her, only she supposed it _was_ her just a week younger. She was dodging across the road – quite recklessly actually. Without even noticing she nearly got hit by a taxi. Ashley could actually remember crossing the road last week. She had been on her way to get some change for the bus. She had been at a party the night before, which explained why she looked such a mess. Only in her memory she couldn't remember any cars on the road.

'Didn't your mother ever teach you to look both ways?' The Doctor asked.

Ashley could only half open her mouth and make a low squeak. Ashley (the week-younger Ashley) got across the street without being killed – but managed to trip up the curb. She walked right by the window, reaching into her pocket for her purse, and dropped her phone onto the pavement.

'I remember dropping my phone.' Ashley said, amazed. 'I remember checking it when I got in and now there's a huge scratch on the back. And some guy picked it up for me. I thought he was going to nick it or something…'

She trailed off. A man did pick her phone up. He handed it to her with a broad smile. Ashley (outside) took it with a wary, bleary frown. She hurried off back down the street. The man – who just happened to be the same man sitting opposite her – watched her walk away and then continued down the street, hands in his pocket.

Ashley turned to the Doctor, wide eyed. The Doctor readjusted his coat and beamed at her. 'I just wanted to see if you could remember meeting me before the pub. I think we bumped into each other twice before, actually.' He half frowned. 'And on both occasions you were quite rude. I was actually quite surprised when you were so nice in the pub.'

'It's because you were so polite.' Ashley replied, her voice a little dreamy. _Did that just happen? Did I just see me a week ago?_

'Right, if we can get back to business now.' The Doctor said, leaning forward. He paused, studying her face. 'This is important.'

Ashley blinked. 'Yeah, yeah it is.'

'So are you going to listen?'

She blinked again. 'Uh, yeah. Go on.'

'Right.' He leaned even closer. Ashley barely noticed. 'Before I say anything I need you to understand that you're special. _Very_ special. I mean, like… Like no one would understand.'

Ashley cocked an eyebrow. 'Are you trying to score?' she smirked.

'Come on,' The Doctor sighed. 'I have a time machine. I don't need to try.' He continued without missing a beat. 'You have a very unique central nervous system in your brain. A system that can't only control your own emotions and movement, but can also control others in the right environment. It's an evolutionary step that isn't supposed to take place on Earth for another ten thousand years. Don't ask me how you've got it, I just know you do. And so does that man who broke into your house – and he wants it.'

Ashley blinked at him. 'So… is he like a scientist or something? Does he work for the government?' She gasped, widening her eyes. 'Am I a conspiracy?'

The Doctor stared at her for a moment. 'No. Nothing like that. You watch too many movies.'

'Oh, yeah and the fact I'm ten thousand years ahead of everyone else on the planet is so much more realistic.' She shook her head. 'That can't possibly be true. Until two weeks ago I thought tuna was made out of dolphins. Until about one week ago I thought Amsterdam was in France.'

The Doctor shook his head, trying to ignore what she had said. 'Look, just pay attention. That man isn't going to leave you alone until he gets what he wants, and I can't exactly just walk to him and tell him to leave.'

'Why can't we just call the police?'

'The police don't deal with this kind of thing.'

'What, you mean like alien things?'

The Doctor sighed, exasperated. 'Yes, exactly.'

'So he's an alien?'

'Kind of.'

'Like you?'

'Kind of.'

Ashley paused. 'So… haven't you got any alien friends who could get rid of him?'

'It's not as simple as that.' The Doctor replied, running one hand through his hair. Surprisingly, it didn't lose its shape at all. 'I know how to get rid of him. Well, in a sense… but until I do that you're not safe. I need to hide you until all this has gone away because if he finds you again, I might not be able to save you. He knows I'm with you now.'

'Hide me? Where?'

The Doctor smiled. 'I have a time machine. I can hide you just about anywhere. Anytime.'

Ashley stared at him. 'But what about my house? What about Manny? He'd go apeshit if I just disappeared like that.'

'You wouldn't have disappeared. He wouldn't even notice that you were gone. I'd put you right back on the couch with your empty bottle of wine. He'd be none the wiser.'

'But I would be.'

The Doctor cast his eyes down and shrugged. 'It's the only way.'

Ashley frowned in thought for a moment. 'If you know how to get rid of the guy, why haven't you done it already?'

'It's complicated. You wouldn't understand.'

Ashley half nodded. 'Can't I help?'

The Doctor looked at her for a moment. 'Help?'

'Yeah, you are aware of the term aren't you? Help. As in help you get rid of him.'

He mulled it over for a moment. 'I don't really think that would be the best course of…'

'Well you're making him out to be some big shot and by the sounds of it you don't have any big alien mates to help you out. So it can't help to have some help, can it? I mean… if _I'm_ with you that means you won't have to go looking far for him anyway.' She took a sip from her tea. It had cooled quickly and she grimaced at the taste. She looked back at the Doctor to see him grinning at her.

'What?' she asked, alarmed.

'You're taking all this surprisingly well.'

She shrugged. 'Give me another five hours. There's still time for a breakdown.'

'Okay then.' The Doctor nodded. 'Are you sure you want to do this?'

She paused, and nodded. 'I think so.'

He grinned again, getting to his feet. 'Well come on then. We've got work to do.'

Ashley got up quickly and hurried after him – having to as he was already out the door – wondering if she was making the right choice.


	6. Money Woes

**Chapter 6**

**Money Woes**

Ashley looked at the state of her back door and let out a long sigh. It had been completely ripped off its hinges. It lay on the kitchen floor surrounded by broken glass from the pane in the middle. The Doctor stepped over it and leaned against the kitchen workbench, studying Ashley's reaction.

'He could have just _opened_ it. I'm pretty sure it was unlocked.' She sighed and stepped over it. 'As if stealing my brain wasn't enough.'

'So you want to grab some things?' the Doctor asked.

'I suppose.' Ashley replied, continuing through the kitchen with him trailing her. 'Do me a favour, when you bring me back drop me off _before_ the door was broken? It's going to cost a fortune to fix and Manny's going to go ballistic.'

'Sorry,' The Doctor replied. 'No can do. If I did that you'd still be here and there'd be a bit of confusion.'

'Well you're useless.' She started up the stairs. 'Just wait down here and I'll just be a minute-'

The front door opened quite forcefully, causing both Ashley and the Doctor to jump visibly. Manny looked at them both as he closed the door.

'Hi.' He said to Ashley as he surveyed the Doctor suspiciously.

'Hi Manny,' Ashley exhaled. 'I was wondering when you were going to get back.'

'I missed the last bus last night.' Manny replied. 'Decided to stop out.'

Ashley nodded. 'Yeah… um, Manny?'

'So who's this?' Manny asked, still studying the Doctor. 'Hope it's not another one of Eddie's friends.' He moved past the Doctor towards the kitchen.

Ashley blushed. 'No, it's – he's just a friend. Look, Manny… there was a bit of a carry on last night and-'

'Bloody _hell_!' Manny cried from the kitchen. 'What the hell happened to the door?'

Ashley sighed, rubbing her forehead. The Doctor smirked. 'Someone kicked the door down last night.'

'Who?' Manny cried, returning. 'I bet that was one of Eddy's mates, was it?'

'Manny, none of Eddy's mates have been here for _months_, you know that! Eddy hasn't even been here for months!'

'Then who the hell kicked our door down?'

'I don't know!' Ashley lied. 'Probably just some kids.'

'Just some kids? Well did they come in? Did they take anything?'

'No. They just… kicked it down.'

The Doctor stood back, watching the exchange and trying not to smile.

'So a bunch of kids just kicked our door down and then buggered off, did they?' Manny scowled. 'Doesn't sound right to me.'

'Well that's what happened.' Ashley shrugged.

'Well have you called the police? Or the landlord?'

'Um, no.'

'Well I think you better.' Manny snapped, heading back to the kitchen. 'Because it's your problem. You were the one in when it happened. I'm not paying for that mess.'

Ashley rolled her eyes and continued up the stairs. The Doctor smirked.

'And there's _still_ no bread!' Manny cried from the kitchen.

'Shoot me now.' Ashley muttered.

The Tardis sat tucked away in the alley behind Ashley's house. Not too far away, actually. Ashley followed the Doctor with her backpack trying to slow her down and the doubts beginning to settle in. What the hell was she doing? Not even five hours ago she had woken up on the couch to the sound of someone banging around outside. Now she was getting into a time machine with some complete stranger who said he was an _alien_ because there was another _alien_ who wanted her _brain_. Yeah, that happened every day. And why wasn't she running away from this 'Doctor' and his 'Tardis'?

She had no idea.

'You coming then?'

She glanced up and realised she had stopped a few meters from the Tardis. The Doctor stood in the doorway smiling back at her. Like he'd known her all his life.

'I don't know…' she said, quietly.

His smile faltered briefly. 'You what?'

Ashley took a step back. 'Well… you know… I don't know. This is… this is crazy. I mean… getting into a _time machine_. It's just…'

The Doctor half smiled, but it seemed forced. 'Is this that breakdown you were talking about?'

She blinked. 'Maybe.'

'Come on. It'll be okay. I promise.'

'No…' She took another step back. 'I don't even _know_ you.'

The Doctor sighed a little and walked towards her. He placed on hand on her shoulder. 'I'm here to protect you, not to hurt you. You can trust me.'

'I know. I do. That's the problem.'

He looked at her sympathetically but said nothing else. His hand remained on her shoulder. After a moment, she took in a deep breath.

'Okay. Okay I'm ready.' She shook her shoulders to hype herself up – Manny called that movement her 'Rocky Shoulders' and nodded. 'Come on then.'

The Doctor regarded her for a moment longer and then nodded towards the Tardis. 'Come on then.'

Ashley moved quickly and smoothly inside before she had the chance to change her mind. She put her bag down by the door and stood off to one side, crossing her arms over her chest. The Doctor continued straight past her, taking his place by the controls as he had done before. The two of them remained silent for about thirty seconds. Ashley just watched him.

'So who's Eddy?'

Ashley was taken off guard. 'Huh?'

'Eddy. Your friend kept on mentioning 'friends of Eddy'.' The Doctor glanced at her, his expression curious. 'So who's Eddy?'

Ashley shook her head. 'You don't want to know.'

'Oh, I do. Else I wouldn't have asked.' He pulled a lever and pushed a couple of buttons. 'It's been a while since I've had some company you know.'

'Well then maybe I just don't want to tell you.'

'Oh come on!' He grinned. 'It can't be that bad, can it? I'm guessing ex?'

Ashley rolled her eyes. 'Well then you'd guess right. And he wasn't a particularly_ nice_ ex either. He liked to come around pissed as a rat and throw his weight around. I dumped him, he started sending his mates around to do what he used to do. Then they stopped.'

The Doctor's expression wasn't so amused. He half nodded. 'I see.'

The silence reigned once again. The Doctor pulled on another lever and the floor began to rock, however not as jerkily as before. Ashley's stomach flipped more out of nerves and she closed her eyes briefly. 'Where exactly are we going then?'

'Ah I was thinking around 4070. It's pretty quiet.'

Ashley blinked at him stupidly. '4070? You mean… 4070 AD? Like…two thousand odd years away from now?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Time machine, remember? Now just sit tight. We'll be there in a jiffy.'

Ashley lowered her head and closed her eyes, once again finding herself wondering how the hell she had managed to get into this mess in the first place.


	7. Talk Talk Talk

**Chapter 7**

**Talk Talk Talk**

'Maybe I made a wrong turn.' The Doctor mumbled, scratching his head and staring out at the vast empty space ahead of him. The sky was black and full of stars. The ground was empty and grey and dusty. A cold wind whipped up the dust and sent it swirling up into the sky in dozens of miniature tornados. Ashley stood in the doorway of the Tardis, squinting her eyes and pulling her jacket tightly around her.

'I hope so. Because if you intended on bringing me here, I must say that I'm not particularly impressed.'

The Doctor turned and headed back into the Tardis, shaking the dust from his shoulders and hair as he went. Ashley closed the door; glad to not be looking at the barren landscape anymore. She watched as the Doctor circled the controls, pushing buttons and pulling levers. After a moment he stopped, tapping his finger on his chin.

'Ah…' he said.

Ashley waited for him to say more, but he didn't. 'Ah what?' she asked. 'Have you broke it?'

The Doctor chuckled. 'You can't _break_ the Tardis.' He went on circling the controls thoughtfully, still not elaborating. Ashley sighed and clapped her hands together loudly. He looked to her questioningly.

'Any chance of an update?' she asked.

'Oh, right. Yes of course.' He walked towards her, his eyebrows still drawn together slightly. 'It appears that the navigational system is experiencing… interference.'

Ashley blinked. 'Interference? You mean like when you put your phone next to the radio and it makes that _duh-duh-duh-duh _noise?'

The Doctor cocked an eyebrow at her. 'I guess it's a bit like that, yes. There's a signal coming in from somewhere that's messing with her a bit. I suppose we'll just have to stay put and wait for it to pass or else god only knows where we'll end up. Must be a pretty strong signal if it's doing this to her.'

'You mean we can't even get back to _Earth_ if we needed to?' Ashley's mouth dropped.

'Well, we could try. But in the process we might find ourselves with a front row seat to the end of the world or worse, stuck in the middle of a Banameed's Tupperware party.'

'Banameed?'

'They get rowdy.' The Doctor moved to the seat beside the control panel and sat down, putting his feet up on the side. 'Probably won't take too long.'

Ashley nodded and sat down on the floor nearby. The conversation instantly died. They both sat silently, and very awkwardly, for about two whole minutes. Eventually, the Doctor leaned forward.

'So…' he said, obviously racking his brains for a subject matter. 'You… ever travelled before?'

Ashley shrugged. 'I went on a road trip to Scarborough once. And I went to Disneyland when I was eleven.'

The Doctor nodded and opened his mouth to speak again, but he couldn't find anything to say. Ashley watched him for a moment, willing him to say more because she couldn't think of anything either. Without the drama or potential danger there was surprisingly little to converse about.

Ashley was unable to stand the silence. 'You just fly around in your little blue box all day then?' She asked, drawing her knees up to her chest. 'All day? On your own?'

'Well…' He hesitated, a downcast look briefly passing over his face. 'Pretty much.'

Ashley cocked an eyebrow. 'Do you not get bored?'

'Bored? Nah. How can you be bored with infinite time and space to explore?'

'It must get boring in here on your own.' Ashley glanced around at the Tardis. 'It's big and… echoey. You must get lonely.'

The Doctor got up a little too quickly and began circling the controls again. 'Don't get a chance to be.'

Ashley was watching him closely. 'I guess you've got a lot more important things to be getting on with.' She narrowed her eyes slightly, fishing for a reaction. 'Flying around and rescuing strangers and stuff. Even though you're in control of time you still don't have the time for people…'

She trailed off when he turned and looked at her, his brow furrowed. Instantly she knew she had overstepped her bounds and fell silent. She looked away. He began to speak, but a knocking on the Tardis door cut him off.

Surprised, both of them looked towards it. Neither moved nor spoke until there was another knock.

'Expecting someone?' Ashley asked, getting to her feet.

The Doctor pointed at her. 'Stay right where you are.' He warned, and headed towards the door. He put his hand on the handle but didn't open it. He waited a moment, and then called, 'Who is it?'

To Ashley, this seemed absurd and she laughed. She put her hand over her mouth in response to the Doctor's brief stare.

'You don't have clearance to be here.' A voice replied. 'I'd like you to come outside, slowly.'

The Doctor frowned. He glanced to Ashley. 'They shouldn't be able to see us.' He whispered. He paused in thought, and then opened the door.

Ashley rushed over. 'What are you doing?' she hissed. 'What if they're like… baddies or something?'

The Doctor half smiled. 'Baddies?'

Ashley shrugged weakly. He opened the door anyway and looked out. The sound of about fifteen rifles cocking made both Ashley and the Doctor stiffen. The men in front of them were suited up in dark grey armour, every part of them covered apart from the lower halves of their faces. They stood in a semi-circle, all with their guns honed on the Doctor and Ashley. Behind them stood a large black vehicle with huge thick tyres. The back stood open and the engine idled.

'Okay, okay,' the Doctor said, raising his hands. 'No need for those things. We just got… turned around, that's all. We'll just be getting out of your way now-'

'Step outside please, sir.' The nearest man told him. He appeared to be in charge.

'Really, we'll just be on our way and you can just go back to-'

'Step outside please.'

The Doctor glanced back to Ashley. She had her hands raised and was looking around wide eyed. He sighed, and then stepped outside. She followed tentatively. No sooner had they stepped out they were grabbed and separated quickly, taken to opposite sides of the Tardis.

'We're not at threat!' the Doctor insisted as he was shoved against the side of the Tardis. On the other side they did the same to Ashley.

'Hands on the wall and spread your legs please.' The man in charge ordered. While the others patted the Doctor and Ashley down, the man in the armour pulled out a radio. 'Base this is Scout Team 78G. We've found a couple of potential fly-by-nights. Requesting permission to bring them in, over.'

There was a crackle of static. 'Permission granted.'

The man turned and waved to the others. 'Get them in the van.'

'Look, we're not a threat okay?' The Doctor insisted while he was lead to the big black vehicle by two men. 'We're just passing through.'

Without a word from any of the men, The Doctor and Ashley were pushed into the back of the vehicle, the door closed behind them. The Doctor hit the door with the palm of his hand and scowled. 'Bloody rude that is.' He mumbled.

'Who are they?' Ashley asked, worried.

'I'm not sure.' The Doctor replied. The vehicle jerked and began to move. 'But I guess we'll find out soon enough.'


	8. And Into the Frying Pan

**Chapter 8 **

**...And Into the Frying Pan**

They came to a jerky halt after about five minutes or so of driving. The Doctor and Ashley sat on opposite sides of what the Doctor had decided was an oversized boot. Like in the Tardis, they sat in silence most of the way. Again simply out of lack of things to talk about. After 'Who do you think they are' was used up, there was little else to say.

There were voices outside and the Doctor rose, approaching the doors. 'Don't say anything.' He told Ashley. 'Let me do the talking, okay?'

'You really think I was going to speak for us?' Ashley frowned. 'I'm not saying anything unless they cock one of their bloody guns at me again.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Fair enough.'

A second later the door whooshed open again, and both of them were stunned and blinded by the sudden bright light. They shielded their eyes, now unable to properly focus on what was going on outside.

'Take her to the holding bay.' The familiar man in charge's voice ordered. 'Take him up to the office.'

The Doctor tried to force his eyes to adjust and waved his arms. 'No, no,' he shook his head even as the men took his arms. 'She stays with me. She comes with me, okay?'

'Doctor?' Ashley cried out behind him, a little frantically. He tried to look for her, but if anything the light seemed to be getting more intense. 'Oi, get the hell of me!'

'Only one of you can go up and explain why you were parked in military space.' The man's voice droned on. 'Would you rather it be her, or you?'

The Doctor frowned. 'Where will you take her?'

'Holding bay.' The voice repeated.

'Doctor,' Ashley cried, her voice sounding a little further away. 'You better not be leaving me!'

'I'll be back for you as soon as I can, I promise,' he called back to her, feeling himself being dragged away also. 'I promise!'

'Doctor!' Ashley squealed, even further away. 'Don't you dare leave me here! Don't you _dare_!'

The Doctor wasn't going to repeat his promise. He allowed himself to be lead away from her yells and screeches, his eyes tightly closed against the bright lights. He wasn't panicking because this wasn't the first time he had been in this situation. He would be out of it in a jiffy.

At least he hoped so.

* * *

The overweight man on the other side of the desk eyed the Doctor in a way he wasn't entirely happy with, and he couldn't help the side of his nose wrinkle in distaste. Thick grey smoke circled in the air from the fat cigar the man had clamped in his equally fat, yellowed fingers. Briefly a thick, slimy tongue escaped from his swollen lips and quickly disappeared back in again like a grotesque worm. The Doctor felt the other side of his nose wrinkle.

'So who the hell are you?' the fat man asked, his jowls quivering as he spoke. 'And what the hell are you doing in my grounds?'

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. 'Well… to be honest it was kind of a mistake. We must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. You see, we travel pretty quickly and sometimes we miss the road signs and the like…' He trailed off at the sceptical look the fat man was giving him. 'We can be out of your way post haste. We're not even meant to be here.'

'Damn right you're not meant to be here.' The fat man snapped. 'This is a military base. A _secret_ military base. You know how hard it is to keep out protesting nut jobs like you and your girlfriend coming in and royally shafting everyone? We have to work too you know. We have families to support back home.'

'She's not my girlfriend.' The Doctor sighed. 'She's just… well, just coming along for a while-' He paused, eyebrows drawing together. 'Hang on, protesting?'

The fat man narrowed his eyes. 'Yes. Protesting. Involving sabotaging important machinery. You think you're all so high and mighty but you'll happily destroy another man's living just to make yourselves look better in front of all your equally unenlightened friends.'

The Doctor regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. 'Okay then. Saying I _am_ a protestor – and we're speaking hypothetically here because I'm not – what would I be protesting about?'

The fat man looked at him strangely. 'Who did you say you were again?'

'I didn't.'

The fat man took a long drag from his fat cigar and the smoke billowed out of his nostrils. 'You're telling me that you don't even know what we're doing here. That you don't even have a whacked out theory to what's going on here?'

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't watch the news much.'

The fat man looked at him closely. The tongue made another appearance, wetting his lips before returning inside. 'My name is General Gardner and I'm currently in charge of security at the BLFC.'

The Doctor's jaw dropped. 'You're kidding me. Please tell me you're kidding. Because if you're not kidding I can feel a rant coming on, and trust me – you don't want to get me started. You did say the _BLFC_, didn't you?'

Gardener looked slightly bewildered. 'Excuse me?'

'The BLFC? The Biological Labour Force Catalogues?'

'That's right.' Gardener leaned forward. 'You said you weren't a protestor. You're sure starting to sound like one.'

'Well I'm starting to think I might sign up.' The Doctor scowled. 'The BLFC was deemed unlawful by almost _everyone_ .' He paused. 'What year is this?'

Gardner now looked utterly confused. His fat face was glowing slightly. 'What?'

'What year is it?'

'It's 3008.'

The Doctor sighed heavily and got to his feet. '3008. I should have known. Nothing but a bunch of money hungry, power mad _fascists_.'

Gardener was suddenly enraged. 'And who are you to question what is going on here? No one on Earth is complaining, are they? The BLFC offers security and peace of mind for everyone.'

'At the expense of a few thousand _lives_. You're telling me no one minds having human beings who have been completely wiped of any humanity against their own will mowing their lawn for them? Cleaning their house? Testing their drugs?'

'The people who are chosen for this program have a thorough background check. People who are not on record or have a history of major violence or crime are the only ones catalogued for the BLFC. Everyone is checked.' Gardner rose from his seat, his eyes brimming wildfire. 'And you sir, are not an exception.'

The two armed men who had been previously standing by the door stepped forward and grabbed the Doctor's arms, however the Doctor didn't try and fight them off. He continued to glare at Gardner.

'Take him to the holding cell and ready him for the tests.' Gardner ordered, settling back in his chair. 'And even if he doesn't just… get rid of him.'

'I'll be back, General Gardner,' The Doctor scowled as he was dragged out of the room. 'This isn't going to carry on as long as I'm around!'

Gardner took a long draw from his cigar again. 'Well I guess you won't be around for very long then.'


	9. Ignorance is Fatal

**Chapter 9 **

**Ignorance is Fatal**

Ashley struggled and fought the whole way to the place they called the Holding Bay, but her struggles were barely noticed by the two heavyset soldiers that were practically dragging her up the white polished corridor. She yelled at them and threw almost every foul word she had ever heard in her life at them, but they didn't react. Even when she got a lucky punch in the face of the biggest one, none of them reacted. They just continued to drag her up the corridor past thick steel doors. The numbers were going down from 108.

'Number 76.' One of the soldiers reported as they came to an abrupt stop.

Ashley looked at the door, which (as expected) had the number 76 engraved in the thick steel. 'You can't just lock me up!' she yelled as one of the soldiers pulled open the heavy door. 'There's _laws_ against this kind of thing! I need… like… a lawyer!'

The soldiers pushed her inside without a word. Before she had even regained her balance the door was slammed shut. She whirled around and began to pound on the heavy steel.

'Where's the Doctor?' she yelled. 'Doctor!'

'No point yelling. Once the door's shut no one can hear you.'

Ashley turned at the sound of the voice, her eyebrows almost at her hairline. The room she was in was long and thin, with bunk beds on one side and nothing much else. The walls were as pristine as they were in the corridor, and a thick fluorescent strip light ran the length of the ceiling, making the room almost unbearably bright. The person who had spoken was perched on the top bunk, legs dangling over the edge and eyeing her curiously. He looked about her age, with shoulder length blonde hair and dressed in what looked like blue hospital scrubs. He looked entirely normal, apart from the fact his skin was tinged green and his eyes were pink.

Ashley gaped at him. He looked back at her with a small pleasant smile, but after a few moments of her moronic gawping, he started to look a little bewildered.

'Is there something on my face?' he asked, showing a glimpse of a tongue about as red as Ashley's hair.

Ashley swallowed and blinked. 'You're uh… you're green.' She pointed out, unable to say anything else.

The green skinned man on the edge of the bunk let out a long, low groan and rolled his pink eyes. 'You've got to be kidding me!' he cried. 'Another racist!'

Ashley frowned. 'What? I'm not a racist!'

'Oh right, I suppose you don't even class me as a _humanoid_.' He hopped down and landed lightly on the floor. 'You're living in the dark ages. You're all ignorant scum if you ask me. We have just as much right to live in houses and work for a decent wage as any other being on that planet.'

Ashley stared at him, slack jawed.

'Why do you look so surprised? Did you expect me to cower in the corner and let you degrade me with foul-mouthed slander and abuse? Well you've got another thing coming, missy.'

Now he was practically inches away from her face, lips pulled back in an angry snarl. His fists were balled at his sides. Ashley just stared. Her silence seemed to unsettle him.

'You're not going to say anything then?' he asked, obviously rattled. 'Try and defend your ignorant, narrow-minded beliefs?'

Realising that if she didn't say something she was going to end up with a black eye or worse, Ashley raised her hands. 'I didn't mean it offensively.' She said quickly. 'I just… well, I suppose you'll still call me ignorant – which I'm not by the way – but I haven't exactly ever… well… _seen_ anyone with green skin before.' She swallowed hard. 'Because… I uh… I don't get out much.'

The green skinned man moved his head back, his eyebrows knitting together. He eyed her for a few moments. 'What?'

'Well I've only just got here. You see, this guy called the Doctor picked me up and we landed here. But I don't think we were supposed to because he seemed a bit baffled by the whole thing… And then these guys turned up and shoved us in the back of this stupidly massive army truck thing and brought us here. I kind of don't know what's going on.' She shrugged her shoulders and smiled weakly. 'And I've never met anyone with green skin before. Not that I have a problem with it in any way. I'm not racist.'

The man was looking at her in utter bewilderment, but to her relief his hands had relaxed. One of them scratched his thick blonde hair as he backed up a few steps. 'How do you…' He paused. 'Where are you from?'

Ashley wondered how to answer. 'Um… Earth?' she shrugged.

'You mean New Earth.'

'The one and only.' She smiled.

He looked at her a moment longer. 'New Earth is 56 Ereen. How come you've never seen one?'

'Oh I know tons of people called Irene. I have an Aunty Irene. And the guy who owns the corner shop – his wife is called Irene. At least… that's what I call her. No one ever corrected me so I just guessed…'

'What are you on about?'

'Irene. You did say Irene, didn't you?'

'_E_reen.'

'Oh. Right, sorry.'

'You're not from New Earth. I mean for starters you're clothes are _completely_ outdated. And your hair…' He shrugged.

Ashley frowned. 'Hey, it was a spur of the moment thing, okay?' She stopped and the surprise of seeing the green man subsided and the annoyance and mild panic of being separated from the Doctor and threw in a cell returned. She stepped forward, raising a finger. 'And anyway, I think _I_ should be the one getting angry and asking questions. Where the hell am I anyway? And who the hell are you? And who the hell are those men out there?'

The man moved back to the bunk beds and sat on the bottom one, still watching her quizzically. 'You're in the holding bay of the BLFC.' He replied. 'And I'm guessing you're not here of your own free will.'

Ashley turned to the door and pushed on it with both hands. She would have tried the handle, but there wasn't one on this side. 'You'd be guessing right. And what's the BLFC?'

The man snorted, causing her to look around at him in surprise.

'Now come on.' He laughed. 'Don't give me that. Fair enough you might have never met an Ereen before, but _everyone_ knows what the BLFC is. Only infants don't know that.'

'Well pretend I'm an infant then. What's the BLFC?'

The man was quiet for a few moments, just looking at her like she was mad. Eventually, he narrowed his eyes and moved back a little. 'What's your name?'

'Ashley.'

'Ashley?' He repeated. 'That's an old name.'

'And what's yours? Zurg?'

'No. It's Fox.'

Ashley couldn't help a short laugh escape. 'Fox? As in the little ginger dog that frolics in the forest and tries to eat Jemima Puddleduck?' Her eyes widened and she clasped her hands together. 'Your surname isn't Mulder, is it? Do you have a friend called Scully?' She laughed loudly, unable to stop herself. Fox watched her in confusion as she leaned against the wall, laughing hysterically for about two whole minutes. Eventually, she straightened up, wiping the tears from her eyes.

'Finished?' he asked.

'Sorry,' she giggled, shaking her hand. 'I just… when I'm stressed I lose control a little. I'm done now though.' She looked at him for a moment, and then laughed again. 'But _Fox_! Where's your controversial friend the Hound?' She laughed again loudly.

'Okay, that's enough.' Fox said, shaking his head. 'I'm not sharing a cell with a psycho. I'd rather you be a racist.' He moved to the other side of the wall and opened a small square sliding door. He pushed a button and leaned forward. 'Hey,' he said into it, not taking his eyes off Ashley. 'I'm not sharing a cell with her, you hear me? She's insane.'

Ashley moved towards him shaking her hands and head. 'I'm sorry… Okay I'm sorry. I'm not crazy really. Tell me about the BBC, or whatever the hell this place is called.'

Fox eyed her uncertainly, and then took his finger off the glowing purple button. He closed the sliding door and crossed his arms over his chest. 'The BLFC.' He corrected. 'The Biological Labour Force Catalogue.'

Ashley leaned against the door with her hands behind her back. 'And what is that exactly?'

Fox leaned on the opposite wall, reflecting her position. 'This is where the Zed Heads are made.' He replied. 'You know, those vacant looking guys who carry your shopping and cut your lawn and serve the cocktails at parties. You _have_ seen them, right?'

Ashley hesitated, and then shook her head apologetically.

Fox sighed heavily. 'You really are like an infant, aren't you?'

'At least I'm toilet trained.'

'Okay… okay. I might as well explain it to you because no one else will before you get moved on.' He sighed. 'The technology was founded ten years ago by some brainiac kid with too much money and too much time on his hands. For a while it was used as a security thing by the military. Before sending their soldiers on missions they would erase any memory of incriminating evidence in case they were captured. Soon they started using it to wipe out memories of the soldier's families so they would go into battle with the soul intention to destroy the enemy. But then the families got a bit upset, understandably, when their parents and siblings returned home with no idea who they were. So that was _apparently_ put to a stop, but I doubt it was really. Too much money flying around.' Fox paused and sighed. 'So then this kid, who wasn't a kid anymore, decided that they technology could be used to solve the overcrowding prisons. Wipe their memories, their desires to murder and steal, and put them to work in the jobs nobody wanted to do – like factory work or cleaning, that kind of thing. Pretty soon it started to catch on, and everyone wanted a Zed Head to work for them. They were easy to look after, meaning they maintained themselves, they didn't answer back, didn't try and run off and did exactly what they were told. Soon the demand was higher than the amount of criminals.'

Ashley was now sitting cross-legged on the floor, listening intently. She had a couple of questions, but she didn't want to interrupt.

'The whole thing took off pretty quickly, actually. Immigrants were taken in first. No one said anything about it because overcrowding was getting to be a big problem. Then they just went straight on to people who weren't in the System at all. Anyone who didn't have a record was brought in, even if they didn't want to be. There are a surprising number of volunteers too. People who don't have much reason to live and decide to make another person's life easier. Of course there are people who are dead against the whole thing. HRPA are the main group. Greenpeace are the more radical.'

Ashley smiled. 'Greenpeace?'

'Don't tell me you've never heard of them too.'

'Oh I've heard of them.'

'Good. Well they get up here every now and then and try to throw a spanner in the works. But this place is guarded by military Zed Heads and they do a damn good job.'

'So that's why that guy didn't care when I punched him.' Ashley mused. 'Makes a bit more sense.'

Fox paused to run a hand through his hair before continuing. 'This place is near impenetrable. If you're here, it's because you were brought here. You said you and your friend didn't mean to end up here.'

Ashley hesitated. 'I really am not the person to be asking about it. I'm still kind of shell-shocked about the whole thing to be honest.' She shrugged. 'So… this place is where they do the memory wiping, am I right? It's like a big… futuristic death camp or something.'

Fox chuckled. 'No one _dies_ here.'

'I'm sorry, but if someone wipes your entire history; your memories and your emotions and sets you to work for the rest of your days cleaning _toilets_, you might as well have been killed.'

Fox's smile faded quickly. 'It's to make people's lives easier.'

Ashley nodded and rose to her feet. 'Let me guess, you're one of these helpful volunteers to make people's lives easier. Couldn't get that noose knot right, could you?' She grimaced and turned to the door. 'What about the people who are brought in against their own free will, huh? Just a sacrifice so some rich git doesn't have to get off their arse and wash the dishes? Or take the rubbish out for them do they don't have to go through that horrible smell?' She snorted. 'And you said _I_ seem old-fashioned.'

She was pushing on the door, trying to displace some of the anger in her system. Behind her, Fox was silent for about three full minutes.

'You… You don't even know what this place is _about_.' He stammered. 'For some people it's an escape.'

'Bollocks.' Ashley snapped. 'If anyone tries to stick things in my ears to wipe away my memories I'm going to kick them so hard they'll never forget it.'

There was a sudden clanking on the other side of the door and Ashley moved back quickly and raised her hands. The door opened suddenly and in flooded an unbearably bright light, causing her to shield her eyes. Footsteps trooped past her.

'Well it was nice to meet you, Ashley.' Fox said to her from somewhere in the blinding light. 'Maybe a little time on your own will bring you around.'

Ashley pushed her hands out, feeling for anything. He hands touched the cool walls and she felt along it. 'Fox? What's going on?'

'See you on the other side.' He said, and then the light shut off. The door clicked shut. Ashley stood on her own, blinking away the bright colours burned on her retinas.


	10. The Flaws in Perfection

**Chapter 10**

**The Flaws in Perfection**

The Doctor was marched along the seemingly never ending white corridors by two heavily armoured and blank faced soldiers. It was obvious that the two of them were workers, or Zed-Heads as the general public called them. Zed-Heads was given for the fact that there was zero activity in their brains. Or at least that was what the public was told.

The Doctor was furious. He had been one of the main speakers against the BFLC. In fact, the man who had invented the technology; Fidus Meynell, had been detained for unleashing such an unethical product on the general public. It was only irony that he himself had been turned into a Zed Head against his will and was now working as a butler for the new Chairman of BFLC, whom the Doctor never had the privilege to meet. It was only through a series of loopholes that the BFLC was allowed to set up. As long as people were getting their houses scrubbed and companies had workers who demanded no pay, they didn't complain.

They didn't care about the innocent people who were sacrificed for their laziness.

The Doctor was brought out of his angry musings when another man lead by two soldiers approached from the opposite direction. He was an Ereen, and he looked pleased to be walking along the corridor with the two soldiers. The Doctor caught his eye and the Ereen smiled broadly. The Doctor frowned back.

The volunteers were almost just as bad as the people who ran the place.

The Doctor was lead around and corner and beneath a long metal sign that read 'Holding Bay', and was then repeated in four other languages beneath. As he was lead past each door, the Doctor looked at every single surveillance monitor to the right of the handle and watched, eagle eyed for any sign of Ashley. They said they had brought her here and he hoped that she hadn't already been taken for the checks. If that was the case, he might as well admit defeat.

But luckily, he noticed her in room 76. She was kicking the heavy steel door and shouting, but no sound came into the corridor. The Doctor grinned. She was determined, he had to give her that.

He was pushed into room 49, which was thankfully empty. As soon as the door closed to dashed to the right side of the wall, pulled open the small sliding door and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. The amount of times that thing had saved his life was uncountable. Gritting his teeth, he pointed and pressed, quickly setting up a connection with room 76. The speaker crackled as he searched for the correct link.

'There you are…' he muttered as the crackling turned into a low hum. He dropped the screwdriver back into his pocket and pushed the button with his fingers. 'Ashley, can you hear me?'

* * *

In room 76, Ashley stopped kicking the steel door and frowned. A bead of sweat rolled down her nose and she wiped it away impatiently. She could have been sure she had just heard the Doctor's voice…

'Ashley, are you there?'

She snapped her head to the speaker. She dashed to it and moved her face to it so quickly she bashed her head. 'Doctor?'

'Thank God,' The Doctor replied. 'I thought I'd got the wrong room there. Can't be too careful around this lot. If one of the volunteers even sense a breakout they tell on you quicker than Walter the Softie.'

Ashley grinned. 'I loved the Beano.'

'It is the best piece of literature Britain has ever produced. Now listen, we probably don't have much time. You've been in there for about twenty six minutes now, which gives us about four minutes before they come for you.'

Ashley frowned. 'How the hell am I going to get out of here? The door is sealed. And those guard guys are Zed-Heads, or whatever that guy called them. I've already punched one on the nose but he didn't give a crap. I can't fight my way out. Are you outside? Do you have a key?'

'No,' The Doctor replied apologetically. 'I'm in room 49, a little further down from you.'

'You're locked up too?' Ashley cried, her hands shooting to her head. 'Well that's just bloody fantastic!' She paused. 'Wait, how are you talking to me on here then? Does it have links with all the rooms?'

'No, I'm just good with technology. Now, I need you to listen to me carefully. You're going to short circuit the locking system.'

'What? I can't do that! I can't even change a light bulb!'

'You can do this. I'll talk you through it.'

'Seriously, I really, really suck at this kind of thing.'

'If you don't try you'll end up scrubbing someone's bathroom for the rest of your life with a slack jaw and an empty mind.'

Ashley closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. The Doctor was silent on the other end. She could almost hear the seconds ticking away. 'Okay, okay. What do I do?'

'Right,' The Doctor replied immediately. 'I want you to remove the face of the speaker.'

'But I don't have a screwdriver.'

'You don't need one. There haven't been screws for about two hundred years. It's all magnetic now. Just get your nails under it.'

Ashley glanced at her stubby fingernails and cursed herself for being a nail biter. She didn't complain again though – she guessed she wouldn't have the time – and struggled to get her fingers in the narrow gap of the speaker face. After a moment, it just popped off in her hands. She laughed, mostly out of surprise.

'It's off.' She reported. 'Now what?'

'Right, good. Now I need you to look for two wires. A black one and a silvery one.'

Ashley fingered through the mass of wires. _I'm going to get an electric shock_, she thought miserably. _I can't deal with anything hot without burning myself, so who's to say I can mess around with electronics without electrocuting myself?_

'There's a black one,' she said, feeling the pressure now. 'But there's only a kind of coppery one. There's no silver.'

The Doctor was quiet for a moment. 'Oh just use the copper one. It'll do.'

'It'll _do_?' Ashley cried. 'Just what will it _do _exactly?'

'Trust me.'

Ashley sighed. 'Right. Whatever. But if I get electrocuted…'

'Pull the end of each wire out of the control box.'

Ashley closed her eyes, and then pulled the wires out. She breathed a sigh of relief. 'Now what?'

'Cross the bare ends.'

'Now I'll definitely get an electric shock. Are you sure this is…' She trailed off at the sound of the heavy door clunking and clanging. 'Bollocks… Doctor, they're here.'

'I know,' the Doctor said, now sounding slightly worried, which didn't help her at all. 'Just cross the wires. On three, okay? One…'

_Clunk._

'Two…'

_Clang._

'Three!'

Ashley crossed the wires just as the heavy door flew open and the bright light flooded in. She let out a cry as her eyes stung – for about the third time – and she dropped the wires.

'Ashley!' the Doctor cried, his voice sounding crackled and tinny on the speaker.

Heavy footsteps trooped towards her. She lashed out, swinging her fists and feet in almost every direction. Her foot collided with something hard and she yelled out in pain and anger at realising she had kicked the wall.

Suddenly, there was a series of _clanking _and_ clunking_ echoing all around. The bright light flicked off and the heavily armoured guards were running out of her cell and back down the corridor. Ashley stood where she was, blinking the spots away, and then limped towards the open door. She had to push the heavy, six-foot tall floodlight out of the way before she could see down the corridor. Her jaw dropped at what she saw. People were pouring out of their cells, not hesitating to attack the five guards in the corridor. To her confusion, some of the people from the cells were fighting between themselves. After a moment she quickly deducted that it must be some of the volunteers taking sides with the guards.

She let out a half scream at someone grabbing her wrist. She looked up to see the Doctor looking at her, eyes wide and expression grim.

'We need to get away from here.' He told her. 'Right now.'

Too clogged up with shock at the scene unfolding around her, Ashley could only nod and allow herself to be led quickly away. Behind her, two gunshots rang out. Someone screamed shrilly. A young voice cried out in terror.

* * *

General Gardener choked on the thick smoke from his cigar when the surveillance pictures appeared in front of him. His eyes bulged and his face turned a startling shade of violet. The Zed-Head soldiers around him remained unresponsive, standing at attention with their guns on their shoulders. A firm hand came down hard on Gardener's back and he managed to take in a lungful of much needed air. He coughed and spluttered and gasped, eyes still bulging at the chaos in the holding bay.

'What the hell happened?!' he roared, the burning cigar forgotten in his thick fingers. 'How did those doors open?' He whirled around to the guards surrounding him. 'Get your stinking brainless backsides down there at once!' he barked. 'Round them up! Kill whoever you need to!'

The index finger of the hand that smacked the General's back pointed at the two figures fleeing the battle. 'Not those two.' He said.

'You heard the man.' The General spat, his cheeks high with colour. The emotionless men filed neatly out of the door. Wiping his damp brow, Gardener turned to the man beside him. 'Sir, I have no idea how this could have happened. Those doors are _deadlocked_. Only three people, including myself, have the means to open them.'

'Ah, but you see General Gardener,' the man beside him replied calmly. 'The cells in the holding bay have had one single design flaw.'

Gardener looked outraged. 'Not a chance. Those cells were build to hold _anyone _and _anything_! They have never let us down. Never!'

The finger pointed at the man in the trench coat once again. 'But that man… He's not just _anyone_, General.'

'_Him_?' Gardener cried. 'He's just another protestor! He's a nobody! I assure you that those cells are not flawed in any way!'

'Everything has a flaw. Even you yourself have a flaw. Yours is underestimation.' The man beside the General, who just happened to be the Chairman of the BLFC, straightened his tie with one hand and ran his fingers of his other through his short, reddy blonde hair. 'I'm very excited to meet him. More so his lady friend. I've been waiting to catch up with her for a long time.'

Gardener was frowning, knowing better than to attempt to answer back again but bitter that his security system had been so easily brought down. 'Shall I send my men to bring them in?'

'No…' He paused for a long moment, watching the surveillance feed. 'Let them snoop around. I'd like to see how long it takes the Doctor to figure it out. He'll come to me in good time.'

Gardener watched the Chairman turn and leave the room, his forehead deeply lined. His orders were clear – not to get in the way of the two trespassers, but he was so enraged, he knew that if he came across them himself, he wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet between both of their eyes. Looking to the surveillance feed, his stomach knotted and he thought; _Screw the orders. No one makes me look stupid._

'Oh… Oh now General I'm disappointed.'

Gardener glanced around, puzzled. 'Excuse me, sir?'

The Chairman closed the door quietly. 'I always thought you were a man of unquestioning loyalty, General Gardener. It's unfortunate that this has to be done.'

General Gardener didn't even have time to defend himself verbally before his heart stopped and he dropped heavily onto the floor. The Chairman straightened his tie and ran his fingers through his hair, looking down at the lifeless body of the General in disappointment.

Even if Gardener had the chance to defend himself verbally it would have been pointless. He had already condemned himself mentally.


	11. Vacating Memories

**Chapter 11**

**Vacating Memories**

'We're getting out of here, right?' Ashley breathed as she ran behind the Doctor. 'Tell me we're getting the hell out of here.'

'That we will be,' he replied. 'As soon as I settle a little curiosity.'

Ashley shook her head in disagreement but continued to follow him. 'No way. Do I really have to remind you what happened to the cat?'

'It's funny that the cat is always mentioned when curiosity is brought up,' the Doctor mused, slowing to a trot. 'I mean, I bet that cat is fed up. Why isn't the cat affiliated with satisfaction? I'm sure it would prefer that part to be told more.'

'Well don't come crying to me when your curiosity doesn't give you the satisfaction to bring you back.' Ashley sniffed. 'When you're just met with soul destroying disappointment.'

'Let me guess, your parents never bought you a pony.'

Ashley frowned. 'I only wanted a little one.'

The Doctor came to a stop at the bottom of a large flight of stairs, stopping so abruptly that Ashley ran into the back of him. 'Here we are!' he exclaimed with a grin. 'I love 30th century government facilities. They're impossible to get lost in.'

'For you maybe.' Ashley replied. 'Not for the kind of people who can get lost in an empty room.'

The Doctor turned and frowned at her. 'Stop making yourself sound thick. I hate that.' Before she had a chance to respond, he was grinning again. 'Only four flights.'

Ashley hesitated before following him. 'Um… That Irene-'

'Ereen.' The Doctor corrected.

'Yeah… Well, he told me that this place was near impenetrable. Shouldn't we have seen a guard? At least have some of them chasing us maybe?'

'Well… I suppose they're just busy with the bust out in the holding bay. I have to say though; I was only expecting our cells to open up. Both of us using the copper wire instead of the silver one must have busted the whole link.'

'So you just make it all up as you go along then?'

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. 'There's no fun in planning. Spoils the surprise.'

He jogged off up the stairs, his coat fluttering behind him. Ashley hesitated before following, finding it a little difficult to keep up with him. He took three steps at a time, while she planted a foot on each one. After ascending the first flight, she was out of breath.

'Can't we just go? I don't like this.'

The Doctor stopped and turned to her. 'Look, I know this is scary. But I promise you that nothing bad will happen to you, okay? Do you trust me?'

Ashley sighed. 'I suppose or else I wouldn't _be_ here, would I?' She glanced down and kicked her foot gently. 'Don't know why I do though. Got no bloody reason to.'

To her surprise and mild alarm she felt the Doctor take her hand. She glanced up to see him smiling at her. After a moment, she managed a small smile back. Wordlessly, he let go of her, and then continued up the stairs. She hesitated before following.

* * *

'So you've been here before then?' Ashley asked, thankful that they were no longer running. She didn't like running much. 'You seem to know where you're going.'

'I have no idea where I'm going.' The Doctor replied. 'I just like to look like I know where I'm going.'

'I really hope we're not going to end up running into the mess hall or something where every single guard is sitting eating dinner. I can picture it now…' She waved her hands in front of her face. 'About three hundred of them. And they'll be on us faster than a drunk on a fiver.'

'Nice analogy.'

'Thanks.'

The Doctor paused at the end of the current bare white corridor they had found themselves in and pressed his ear against the huge steel door there. It was similar to the cell doors, but there were no markings and no surveillance monitor beside it. Ashley hung back, knowing better than to get in the way. He was silent for about a full thirty seconds.

'Five.' The Doctor muttered. 'No… no six.'

'Six what? Six guards?'

The Doctor glanced to her. 'No. Six seconds.'

Ashley cocked an eyebrow. 'Huh?'

'We'll have six seconds from this door behind opened to get down the corridor before the guard on patrol doubles back and sees us. Do you think you're up to a bit of frenzied running?'

'Oh man, more running?'

'There's a lot of running involved.'

'You're telling me.'

The Doctor pressed his ear against the door again, his eyes wide in concentration. 'Right… Okay…' He grew still. Ashley crossed her arms over her chest, and then was surprised when the Doctor suddenly came back to life and hauled open the heavy steel door. She shoved her hard through the open doorway while hissing; '_Left_!'

Ashley was taken off guard and started to go right. With an impatient correction from the Doctor she turned and sprinted left. In her head she began counting six seconds. She could hear the Doctor behind her, and she could also hear a second set of footsteps. Getting louder.

She was up to seven in her head when they turned the corner. To her dismay, they were greeted by another door. 'Did he see us?' she whispered. 'Is he coming?'

The Doctor peered around the corner. 'Don't you know your left from right?'

'I got confused!'

'Remind me to work on that with you when we get back to the Tardis. And to answer your question no, he didn't see us. I only said six to get you to move quicker. We have nine seconds really.'

Ashley rolled her eyes. 'Oh well thanks for nearly giving me a bloody heart attack.'

'You're welcome.' The Doctor beamed at her. He moved to the door and pressed his ear against as he had done with the last one. He paused, frowning, and then pushed it open.

Both of them peered around the door, Ashley's head beneath the Doctor's. Her mouth formed a small 'o' and she cooed; 'Oooh.'

'Oooh indeed.' The Doctor replied, pushing open the door fully for them both to enter. He looked around the pristine laboratory with a frown. 'It deserves a whopping great big oooh. This is the most advanced laboratory this side of the solar system. And for its time. There's not many better than this, let me tell you.'

Ashley ran her fingers along the nearest surface and cocked an eyebrow. 'This is what my apartment would look like if it was just Manny. He's a big clean – Whoa!' She snapped her hand back as five tiny little spiders scuttled onto the surface towards her fingers. 'Spiders!' she cried with a yelp.

The Doctor glanced over her shoulder. 'They're not spiders. Look closer.'

Tentatively, Ashley moved forward, narrowing her eyes at the five little dots scurrying around on the surface. One of them caught the light and gleamed. At that moment she realised that they weren't alive at all. 'Oh wow…' she mumbled. 'They're like… spider robots.'

'They're Hygiene Control,' the Doctor explained with a fond grin. 'Probably the only half decent thing that this company has produced. They disinfect any contaminated surface. Every hospital has them.' He hunkered down and peered at them. 'Fantastic little things they are.'

'I could do with some of these.' Ashley grinned. 'You think they'd miss them?'

The Doctor glanced to her. 'You don't want to get them on your skin. We're _covered_ in germs. This lot would probably just eat us alive.'

Ashley's impressed smile faded and she scrunched half her nose. 'Like piranhas?'

The Doctor mulled it over for a moment. 'A little like that, yes. But I think they would have a go at the bones too.'

Ashley looked horrified. 'Then shouldn't we have protection? Like… Like Kevlar or something?'

The Doctor waved his hand as he moved away across the lab. 'Just be careful you don't touch anything or lean against the counters. You'll be fine.'

Ashley glanced around nervously, keeping her hands up under her chin and hurried after him, giving all the chairs and surfaces a wide berth as she passed. The Doctor had stopped on the far side of the room and was standing in front of a large window that spanned the whole back wall from ceiling to floor. In front of it was a long metal rail, but he didn't put his hands on it. Tentatively, Ashley joined his side, careful not to put her own hands - or any part of her body - on the rail. She peered through the window and gasped.

Below them, in a room about half the size of a football field, was Fox.

He was strapped into a huge metal seat that looked like a dentist chair that had been restyled by Tim Burton. His head was tilted far back, his neck curved into an uncomfortably looking arch. Hundreds of wires were attached to his head and then ends of those wires lead off into a series of tall machines that looked out of date even by Ashley's standards. Directly below them there were three Zed-Head guards armed with guns. Five more people in white coats, facemasks and white bandanas on their heads fussed around Fox, checking wires and checking his restraints.

'That's Fox,' Ashley said, stunned. 'He was the guy who I was in the cell with.'

The Doctor half nodded, his brow deeply furrowed. A moment later he turned and began to head away. Ashley frowned.

'Where are you going?' she snapped. 'We can't just leave him here!'

The Doctor looked to her impatiently. 'He's a volunteer. Even if we could get in there past the guards, he wouldn't want to come with us anyway. It's pointless.'

Ashley stared at him for a moment, even though she knew he was right. Fox had told her himself that he was here of his own accord, but still she couldn't bear the thought of leaving him here. She glanced back over her shoulder to the window.

'There's nothing we can do.' The Doctor told her gently.

'Yeah.' Ashley sighed. 'Yeah I know.'

The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder and began to lead her away. They only got three steps when a low humming sounded from behind. They both stopped and looked back. The room on the other side of the window was glowing a dull violet. The Doctor headed back. Ashley followed after a moment.

The scientists had vacated to a safe distance, now with thick dark glasses over their eyes. The wires attached to Fox's head were throbbing gently and violet light was pumping into the out-dated machines. On the chair, Fox was shaking violently. His eyes were rolled back into his head. Every part of him was twitching.

'Oh my god…' Ashley mumbled.

The Doctor took her arm. 'Come on.' He said, trying to lead her away. She shook him off.

'What is that?' she asked. 'The light.'

'That's his memories.' The Doctor replied sadly.

Ashley watched with wide eyes as Fox continued to convulse. Eventually, she turned away. 'I want to get out of here.' She said, her voice flat. 'I want to get out of here now.'

The Doctor nodded. 'We're nearly where I want to be.' He said. 'We'll be leaving soon. I promise.'


	12. Fleeting Meetings

**Chapter 12**

**Fleeting Meetings**

The surveillance camera concealed in the ceiling watched the Doctor and Ashley pass beneath it. The lens turned and adjusted, making a almost silent whirring as it did so, but neither of the time travellers noticed. Once it lost them, it reverted to staring down at the floor, and the next camera picked up on their movements further down the corridor.

'So, is Fox one of them now?' Ashley asked, writhing her hands in front of her.

'Probably being shipped off as we speak.' The Doctor replied. 'He'll probably just end up being a cleaner.'

Ashley shuddered visibly. 'That could have been us, couldn't it?' she asked. 'If you hadn't been able to get us out of the cells that would have happened to us, wouldn't it?'

The Doctor nodded. 'A good job I got us out then, isn't it?'

Ashley cast her eyes down and frowned in thought. 'It's a bit ironic though, isn't it?

He cast a quick glance to her. 'What is?'

'The fact you took me away from a guy who wanted to take my brain and brought me to a place where brains are zapped.' Ashley shrugged her shoulders. 'It's a bit of a coincidence, don't you think?'

The Doctor turned and stared at her hard. 'What did you just say?'

Ashley took a step back, eyes wide in surprise and confusion. 'I said it's a bit of a coincidence.' She repeated, unnerved by the sudden intensity of his gaze.

'There's no such thing as coincidences…' The Doctor shook his head vigorously and began to pace. After a moment he stopped and grabbed his hair. 'God I'm so _stupid_! How could I have been so _stupid_?'

Ashley stared at him, bewildered and feeling a little frightened. 'What are you talking about?'

'It's so _obvious_!' he almost yelled. 'How did I not think of it earlier? Why didn't I realise!'

'Doctor, you're scaring me.'

He turned to her, eyes wide. 'I'm glad,' he replied in a flat voice. 'Because you'll need the adrenaline to run away from this place. We need to leave here. _Now_.'

Ashley frowned. 'What?'

The Doctor moved close to her. 'I lost control of the Tardis and we came here,' he told her, almost whispering. 'I didn't think much of it because she's getting old and it happens more and more…' He paused. 'But it wasn't a mistake, or a malfunction. We were _brought_ here.' He straightened up and looked around. 'That's why there are no guards. They're letting us move around freely. They want us to see everything.'

Ashley's eyes were almost bulging out of her head. 'Who?'

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply but he was interrupted by the sound of slow clapping. It was a sharp, loud sound that caused Ashley to flinch. The Doctor whirled around, immediately stepping in front of her.

The man who stood at the end of the corridor was smiling pleasantly at both of them. He was well dressed in a dark suit and a blood red tie. His reddy-blonde hair was neat. His teeth were perfect and white. 'I imagine if it wasn't for the block you would have clicked on right away, Doctor. I'm very much aware that you're not a stupid man. My apologies for it, but it wouldn't have been much fun if you had figured it out straight away and flew off immediately. Would have made the whole ordeal… well, a little pointless really.'

The Doctor and Ashley stared at the stranger warily. 'Who are you?' the Doctor ordered. 'Why did you bring us here?'

'Ah yes, introductions.' The man smiled, pushing his hands in his pockets. 'My name is Timothy Crowe. CEO of the BLFC. I believe you are the Doctor and this…' he cocked his head to see around the Doctor. 'Would be Ashley, I presume.'

Ashley ducked behind the Doctor.

'Cute.' Crowe smirked.

'You're breaking the law by keeping this place up and running.' The Doctor informed him. 'It was deemed unlawful years ago.'

'Yes I remember.' Crowe smiled in that pleasant way. 'I remember you attending the hearing. I was there too, or do you not remember me?'

The Doctor narrowed his eyes briefly.

'Although at the time I believe it was my predecessor Fidus Meynell who did most of the talking on our behalf. Which is something I thanked him for.' He looked behind the Doctor and Ashley. 'Speaking of which, here he comes now.'

Ashley and the Doctor looked behind them sharply. The air escaped Ashley all at once and she found it hard to bring it in again. The man that stood at the other end of the corridor wore a black hooded jacket and a dark cap. In his hand he held Ashley's metal baseball bat that took prized place behind the door in her living room.

'I believe you both met him fleetingly.' Crowe said from behind. 'I have to apologise for the amount of force he used. After all, he's just another soldier.'

The Doctor looked back around to Crowe his eyes wide and his jaw set. 'You don't have to do this. Just let us go. I'm asking you, leave her alone.'

Crowe's eyes darkened. 'But are you begging me yet, Doctor? I'll only contemplate your suggestion when you start begging, which I assure you will not be much longer now.'

'Doctor!' Ashley squealed from behind.

The Doctor whirled around to see Meynell seizing Ashley by her arm. She struggled with him but he was too strong for her. The Doctor lunged forward, only noting the metal bat swinging up at him as it collided with the side of his head. He fell back on the ground, his vision blurring. The world began to spin around him. He could hear Ashley's shrieks seeming to echo in every part of his brain.

'You promised!' she wailed. '_You promised_!'


	13. Anger Management

**Chapter 13**

**Anger Management**

The Doctor was forced out of the darkness by someone whistling. He didn't recognise the tune, but it woke him nevertheless. A sharp pain shot through his head from where Meynell had knocked him out with the baseball bat. He groaned and finally opened his eyes, but he saw nothing but dark blurs. He blinked and shook his head. His vision began to return slowly.

'Ashley?' he mumbled. He blinked, forcing himself to return to his senses. 'Ashley?' he called out, a little clearer this time.

He went to raise his hands and found he couldn't. Looking down at them he realised they were strapped down onto the arms of the chair he was sitting in. He struggled but it was no use. He looked around, frowning.

'Who's that whistling?' he demanded, looking around the small, dark room. He noticed a flat screen monitor to his right, the picture white and flickering. The Doctor narrowed his eyes at it. Something shuffled behind him and he strained to see what it was. 'Who's there?' he demanded.

'Nice to see you've finally returned, Doctor.'

The Doctor looked to the monitor to see Crowe's grinning face filling most of the screen. 'And I hope that Mr Meynell isn't annoying you with his whistling. He does that from time to time. I myself find it rather soothing.'

The Doctor glared at the monitor, his eyebrows knitted together. 'Where's Ashley?' he demanded.

'She's fine. For now. Would you like to see her?' Without waiting for a response, Crowe stepped aside, arm outstretched as if he was presenting a live act onto a show. The picture on the screen pulled out a little, revealing more than it had done.

Ashley was strapped down in the chair that Fox had been strapped into not long ago, however she didn't have the wires attached to her head but it was secured in a manner so she could only stare straight upwards. The Doctor did not fail to notice the tray full of sharp surgical instruments beside her. Her mouth was gagged with a white cloth. Behind her, ten Zed-Head guards lined the back wall, all armed and staring vacantly ahead.

'Apologies for the gag,' Crowe said, walking to her side. 'But you should have heard the language coming out of her, Doctor. Disgraceful.'

He reached out to touch her cheek and she jerked her body and let out an angry, muffled grunt of warning. He pulled his hand back and smiled, glancing back to the Doctor.

'She _is_ a pretty little thing, isn't she? But you've always gone for the pretty ones, haven't you Doctor? Not that you would ever admit to noticing such a fact…'

'I'm warning you, Crowe,' the Doctor growled. 'I'm giving you one chance. Let her go. This isn't going to end well for you.'

'It's not?' Crowe laughed. 'Well I don't see what you can do about it, Doctor! If you hadn't noticed you're tied to a chair in another part of the facility! And your companion happens to be in a similar predicament, only you're going to last a little longer than she is.'

Ashley yelled into the cloth again, struggling with her restraints but getting nowhere. Crowe moved around so he was standing at her head. She watched him with unblinking eyes as he placed his hands on her head. The Doctor jerked in his seat.

'Crowe!' he yelled. 'Crowe, you've got it wrong! That isn't her! She's not the one you were looking for!'

Amused, Crowe looked to him. 'Really? Oh now, Doctor I expected better of you than that. Trying to bluff me. I know fine well who she is. I have her photo on my desk in my office.' He looked back down at her and smiled. 'I do you know.'

Ashley said something incoherent but it was obvious it was a word unsuitable for primetime television. Crowe smirked and brushed her red hair from her forehead.

'Would you like to speak with the Doctor before we carry on with the procedure?'

She made more muffled noises.

'See?' Crowe said to the Doctor as he untied the gag. 'I'm not entirely heartless.'

'Doctor!' Ashley breathed out, her voice shrill. 'Where the hell are you?'

'Don't worry,' The Doctor answered, both his hearts thudding in his chest. 'I'm going to get you out of here, okay? Just try and relax.'

'Relax!?' she screeched. 'How am I meant to bloody well _relax_? He's going to cut out my brain!'

Crowe smirked as he examined the surgical instruments.

'I made a promise, Ashley. I'm not about to break it. I'm going to get you out of here, okay? Just try and calm down.'

Ashley's face was growing red. 'I swear to God if you tell me to calm down one more time I'm going to snap your damn chicken legs!'

The Doctor blinked. He had thought he had just seen a blue spark above her head, but it couldn't have been…

'Are you even listening to me?' she yelled.

The Doctor recoiled slightly as she sparked again. Then he grinned slightly. 'I'm here.' He replied. 'Just calm down.'

'Did you hear what I said?' Ashley growled. 'Don't tell me to calm down.'

Two more sparks. One of the Zed-Heads on the back wall twitched and blinked. Crowe was standing with his back to her, fussing over the surgical instruments. He saw none of this.

'How do you think I'm going to be able to help you when you're hysterical?' the Doctor told her, his tone becoming annoyed. 'God you're stupid, aren't you? All you've done since we landed is complain that you can't do this and you can't do that and that you can't butter a piece of bread without getting it all over your face! It makes me wonder why anyone would want your brain. All it's probably good for is a paper weight, and I doubt it would even by able to do _that_ very well!'

Crowe was looking up at the monitor again, his expression solemn. Sparks flickered all around Ashley's head. There were loads of them now and she was glowing like a bug-zapper.

'What the hell did you just say to me?' she demanded angrily.

'Oh do shut up and let me deal with this.' The Doctor snapped in his best irritated voice.

'You bastard!' Ashley yelled. 'You complete and utter arsehole! I just should have stayed at home seeing as this would have happened anyway! What have you done, anyway you wanker? You just ended up throwing me to the bloody lions, you fu…' She trailed off; apparently aware of the fact she was glowing for the first time. 'Oh… oh what's going on?'

Crowe whirled around, his face stricken. 'Oh no… Oh no you don't!' he cried, lunging forward with the scalpel in his hand. His body blocked the monitor and the Doctor yelled out. He watched, breath caught in his throat. He listened to Ashley's yelps, Crowe's angry snarls and then… gunshots.

The picture of the room returned to the screen. The Zed-Heads were charging around, shooting their guns erratically at everything and anything. Three of them received immediate bullet holes to the head and dropped down to the ground. Ashley screamed the whole time, blue sparks flying from her in a frenzy. Crowe was lying in the foetal position on the floor, a dark puddle already growing around him.

The whistling that had been going on the whole time behind him abruptly stopped. The sounds of the gunshots and Ashley's shrill screaming on the monitor suddenly seemed very loud. The Doctor strained to see behind him, feeling increasingly anxious.

'Um… Mr Meynell?'

The hands that grabbed his shoulders were strong and cold. Before he could properly comprehend what was going on, the Doctor hit the far wall hard and the wooden chair beneath him crumbled into a pile of splinters. He scrambled to his feet, only to be hit hard in the face. He stumbled back into the wall but composed himself quickly. He ducked the next blow.

'Mr Meynell, really, I'd like you to stop if you wouldn't mind!'

He dodged another blow, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the screwdriver. Meynell swung again, his expression unchanging.

'I know I said a few mean things at the conference, but I bet if you were able to you'd agree with me now, eh?'

The Doctor ducked and lunged to the left of Meynell, pressing the screwdriver hard against the temple of his empty brain and pressed down on the button. 'I'm sorry.' He said sincerely. 'I'm so sorry.'

Meynell's body slumped to the ground. The Doctor looked at him grimly for a moment, before running back to the monitor. Ashley had fallen silent. One Zed-Head remained, shooting into the air wildly. For one awful moment, the Doctor thought she was dead.

But then she sparked.

'I'm coming for you, don't worry.' He told her.

'Hurry up!' she yelled, her eyes tightly closed. 'Even though I _hate you you complete bastard_!'

The Doctor turned and opened the door, running out into the bright corridor. He stood and looked both ways. They both looked identical. He gritted his teeth, let out an impatient sigh, turned left and sprinted down the corridor.


	14. Battle Ground

**Chapter 14**

**Battle Ground**

The metal restraints on her wrists and head were nipping her skin, which was irritating her. Thankfully the last Zed-Head had run out of ammo and it didn't occur to him to reload. Instead there was just a series of clicks and shuffling feet coming from somewhere behind her, which for some reason she found more unnerving than the sound of gunshots. She was still trying to figure out what had just happened. One minute the Doctor is being a total jerk, the next everyone is shooting guns into the air like they were at some hillbilly pig competition. Apparently that creep Crowe had got a bullet, along with the majority of the Zed-Heads. It was a miracle she hadn't received one either.

She frowned as she recalled what the Doctor had said to her. Why the hell would he say those things? Had he been _trying_ to make her angry? Did he want her to get more hysterical…?

'Of course!' she cried. 'You're a bloody smart arse, Doctor!'

She recalled what he had said about what she was capable of shortly after their first meeting, in the cafe one week in the future. Controlling emotions. She had caused the Zed-Heads to go off like that. They had absorbed her anger and just goen insane. That's why her head had glowed like that. _She_ had just caused all of this.

'Oh wow…' she mumbled. 'I did this.'

There was a sudden _clunking_ and _clanging_ somewhere to her left and she tried to turn her head, but it was impossible. She listened for a moment, and then heard footsteps. 'Is that you Doctor?'

'The one and only.' The familiar voice replied. His face filled her vision and he grinned. 'Are you still in one piece?'

She frowned. 'Can you get me out of here please? I have neck cramp.'

With a smile, the Doctor moved out of her line of sight again. A moment later, she felt the pressure lighted on her head and she lifted it, wincing at the audible crack in her neck. Then her hands were released, and then her legs. Slowly, and with help from the Doctor, she returned to an upright, standing position.

'Are you okay?' he asked, his expression concerned. Ashley frowned and punched him in the shoulder. He recoiled with raised eyebrows. 'Ow!' he cried. 'What was that for?'

'For saying I can't butter bread properly.' She scowled, rubbing her wrist. 'I get that you only said it to annoy me so for the-' She pointed at her head and pulled a face. '-thing...but it was still unnecessary.'

The Doctor rubbed his shoulder. 'Okay I'm sorry.' He rolled his eyes. 'And now can we proceed with leaving if you're done stropping?'

'I suppose.' Ashley sulked. 'Although if we'd left when I had said we wouldn't have even got into this mess in the first place.'

The Doctor glanced around, his expression hardening. 'Where's Crowe?' he asked.

Ashley looked around. 'What?'

'He was on the floor when I left that room…' The Doctor looked around, but he only saw dead guards and the remaining live guard who was now standing motionless off to one side. 'He'd been shot.'

Ashley looked down at her feet. With a grimace, she stepped out of the bloody puddle. 'Oh Christ…' she muttered.

The Doctor looked down. The puddle was big, but there was no body anywhere near it. A trail of blood lead towards a single door that stood open on the far side of the room. Beyond it was only darkness. The Doctor took Ashley's hand and began to lead her away to the door he had entered in.

'We're leaving now.' he confirmed.

'Uh-huh.' Ashley nodded. 'About time too.'

As they left into the corridor, the lights suddenly flashed off. For a split second, they were plunged into darkness. An ice blue light quickly replaced it and a droning alarm began to sound.

'_This is the activation of evacuation protocol 006001_,' a droning female voice informed them. '_Please gather at the appropriate location for your station and await transportation_.'

Ashley looked to the Doctor with wide eyes. 'Why is the place being evacuated?'

'Because the holding bay has been completely breached.' The Doctor replied. 'The other prisoners must be fighting there way out.'

As if on cue, gunshots echoed up the corridor, following by yells and screams. The Doctor tightened his grip on Ashley's hand and dragged her in the opposite direction.

'Don't you dare stop running!' he yelled back to her. 'Don't you stop for _anything_!'

'You're telling me is if I'm going to stop to clip my toenails!' Ashley cried back. 'You don't really think I'm stupid, do you?'

The Doctor hesitated. 'Can we talk about this later?'

Ashley squeezed his hand hard but didn't say anything else. They ran on, following the turning corridors and headed up a flight of stairs until they exploded into a familiar room.

'Oh great,' Ashley groaned. 'We're in the flesh-eating spider room.'

'Keep moving. There's no reason to stop-'

'You're not going to take this away from me, Doctor.' A raspy voice hissed.

Both the Doctor and Ashley looked around to see Crowe leaning against the wall on the far side of the room, his face pale and his hands clamped on the bloody mess on his stomach. He lumbered forwards a few steps and then stopped.

'Do you… Do you know just how long I've been l… looking for her?' Under the icy blue light his eye sockets looked almost hollow and his skin was slick with sweat.

The Doctor took a step towards him, hand outstretched. 'I can help you. It doesn't have to be like this. You don't need her.'

Crowe laughed. A thin line of blood ran down his chin. '_Need_? It's all about _needing_ with you people, isn't it? It's not a case of needing at all, Doctor. I don't need to be able to control people's emotions. I _want_ to be able to. Can you imagine what you could do with such a thing? I've spent years controlling my emotions for when I finally found her. I can make myself ecstatically happy to terribly depressed in a blink of an eye. I can break people without even making the effort. I can put the fear of God into them in a second.' He shot a look at Ashley. 'When is she ever going to need it? She doesn't even understand how it _works._ You and I, Doctor… we're men of understanding.'

'I don't understand you.' The Doctor replied, shaking his head. 'And what are you going to do with that power now, anyway? You're dying.'

Crowe chuckled. 'You think that's the only thing she's capable of, Doctor?' He shook his head and tutted. 'I don't believe you did your homework correctly. Not that it matters anymore.'

With a flick of his wrist, Ashley shot across the room, slamming hard into the far wall. She crumpled to the floor, barely conscious. The Doctor turned to her, only to be grabbed from behind by Crowe. Despite the near-fatal bullet wound in his stomach, Crowe still harnessed a lot of strength. He dragged the Doctor backwards, swinging him around.

'You're not going to ruin this for me!' Crowe yelled into his ear. 'Not after all this time!'

The Doctor tried to pull Crowe's hands from around his neck but he couldn't. His face began to go red as he found it harder and harder to breathe. He saw a work bench coming at him fast and immediately knew what Crowe was doing. Before he had a chance to slam the Doctor's face onto the surface, the Doctor pushed his hands on the underside of the table, stopping himself from getting any closer. In his ear, Crowe grunted, pushing down on the Doctor with all his strength. A bead of sweat dropped from the Doctor's nose onto the surface.

Immediately, dozens of Hygiene Control bots scurried into view to sanitize the area.

'Ashley!' The Doctor yelled, feeling himself getting closer to the small robots. 'I could do with some help here!'

On the floor on the other side of the room, Ashley sat up and groaned. Her head was throbbing. She looked around groggily to see the struggle going on. She scrambled to her feet unsteadily and lumbered towards them. Her feet tripped and her hand slammed on the workbench to steady herself. Dozens of the tiny robots immediately engulfed her hand and she began to shake them frantically. A few fell off but there were still a lot of them hanging on.

'Ashley!' the Doctor yelled again, this time more urgently.

She sprinted towards them and grabbed Crowe's face with her spider-bot covered hand and hauled him back off the Doctor. Immediately Crowe yelled out shrilly and released the Doctor. He batted at his face frantically, screaming in agony. The Doctor grabbed Ashley by the top of her arm and draggedher across the lab.

'My arm!' she screeched as the robots scurried all over her skin. '_Doctor, my arm_!'

The Doctor nodded. 'I know, I know!'

He dragged her to a booth and pushed aside the sliding door. He shoved her inside and abruptly turned a knob on the wall. Ashley yelled out at the cold liquid that drenched her. The tiny robots dropped off her and washed away down the drain. They both stared at each other for a moment in silence. Then the Doctor smiled weakly.

'You don't think there would be something so dangerous in the lab without something to get them off, would you?' he asked.

Ashley blinked at him, water dripping from her and then she looked towards Crowe. He was writhing on the floor, his hands covering his face as he screamed in agony.

'We don't need to see that.' The Doctor mumbled, pulling Ashley towards the door.

She followed him without hesitation, dripping wet from the shower. Before they slipped away through the door she glanced back over her shoulder at Crowe. He was glaring after them, the skin on the left side of his face completely eaten away.

* * *

'You have _got_ to be kidding me.' The Doctor groaned as they skidded to a halt at the doors that lead out onto the barren land outside. Beside him, Ashley let out a groan.

'Someone hates us,' she sighed. 'Do you know that?'

'A lot of people hate me.' The Doctor nodded in agreement.

The scene before them looked like something taken from an epic movie. There were hundreds of people fighting. The Zed-Heads against the prisoners. Guns were going off everywhere. People dropped everywhere. There were bodies everywhere. Ashley was disgusted to see some of the prisoners, who were probably volunteers, attacking their own. But this didn't stop the Zed-Heads from shooting them, however.

'So how are we going to do this?' Ashley asked, her heart pounding like a drum in her chest.

The Doctor mused for a moment. 'Weeeell… I think we're just going to have to run for it.'

'More running?' Ashley whined.

The Doctor took her hand. 'Come on, it's good for you!'

They ran into the bloodshed with their heads lowered. Ashley had no idea where they were going but she carried on anyway. Someone slammed into the side of her and she fell to the ground hard. She glanced up to see a familiar green face staring back at her. His eyes bulged, unseeing, and his blonde hair was matted with blood. Ashley managed a small squeak before the Doctor hauled her to her feet again.

'There's no time for that!' he yelled over the sounds of the battle. 'Get those knees up, okay?'

Ashley was up and running again before he finished speaking. She looked ahead and saw that he was heading for one of the black vehicles that had brought them here. She picked up the pace, knowing that once they were inside, they were home free. She couldn't wait to get back home. Even the thought of Manny bitching about the bread was a welcome thought to this madness. She was actually looking forward to calling the landlord to tell him about the bust-up back door. Hell, she would even fix it herself-

Something else slammed into her and she shot backwards. Her shoulder suddenly felt extremely warm, and all of a sudden she was in intense pain. She looked to see blood seeping into her clothes. She cried out in shock, catching the Doctor's attention who hadn't noticed what had happened.

'_Doctor_!' she cried. 'Oh my God! Oh _Christ_ someone _shot_ me!'

The Doctor was beside her pulling her up again. 'Keep moving!' he told her. 'Come on, I told you to get those knees up!'

'My shoulder!'

'You don't run with your shoulders!'

The Doctor slung her good arm around his shoulders and practically carried her to the nearest vehicle. It was smaller than the truck they had arrived in – more along the size of a minibus. They ran into the back, which was already open, and the Doctor slammed his palm on the button to close the doors behind them. Before they had even shut fully he knelt beside her and pulled her shirt down over her arm to expose her shoulder. Ashley whimpered as she looked at the blackened, bloody hole.

'I don't bloody believe this!' she cried.

'It's fine,' the Doctor told her. 'Don't worry. We'll get you to a hospital and you'll be fine, I promise.' He glanced around and grabbed a cloth that was lying nearby. It looked dirty and grimy but he pressed it against her shoulder anyway. She screamed out in pain.

'Oh _God_ you're heading for one _hell_ of a punch, mister!' she roared.

The Doctor grinned at her fondly. 'Oh you're special, do you know that?'

She glared at him, her hair still soaked. Her makeup – or what was left of it – was streaked down her cheeks. He just grinned back and got to his feet.

'Hold that down hard,' he told her. 'Hard as you can. We'll be out of here in no time.'

Ashley nodded, too exhausted and in too much pain to give in any kind of response. A moment later and the Doctor was behind the wheel and tearing away from the Government building looming over them.


	15. This Should Be Farewell

**Chapter 15**

**This Should Be Farewell**

The Tardis was exactly where they had left it. The Doctor pulled up close to it and helped Ashley out into the blustering, cold wind of this desolate planet. As they slowly made their way to the Tardis, Ashley turned and looked up wearily at the Doctor.

'You're one crazy sod, do you know that?' she sighed.

The Doctor chuckled. 'If I had a pound for every time someone said that.'

Ashley smiled and moved away from him, leaning against the side of the blue box as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the key to the Tardis. The key Ashley had found on the floor of her pub what seemed like weeks ago. She supposed that in reality it was years ago. _Centuries_ ago.

With a light sigh she looked up at the dark sky. It took her a moment to register what she was seeing and her mouth dropped open. She reached out and tugged on the Doctor's coat just as he went to go inside the Tardis.

'Um…' She couldn't managed anything else. Instead, she pointed straight up.

The Doctor followed her finger, and then grinned. He moved beside her and crossed his arms over his chest. 'Oh yeah. That would be Earth.'

Ashley blinked. 'Earth? As in… my planet?'

'Weeell… Not the one you know. That's New Earth.' He glanced around and sighed. 'This is one of the eight moons that orbit it. Only two of them haven't been bought out by companies. Shame really.' He looked upwards for a moment longer, and then turned his attention back to Ashley. 'Come on. I think we've been here long enough.'

Still pressing the dirty rag to her bloody shoulder, Ashley slowly moved inside the Tardis. She was so exhausted she didn't even care about the bigger-on-the-inside thing anymore. She sat down heavily on the floor and leaned back against one of the beams. The Doctor squatted beside her and lifted the cloth from her shoulder.

'It'll be okay.' he told her. 'The bullet missed any major arteries. You'll have an impressive scar though.'

Ashley smiled lazily. 'And guys dig scars, right?'

The Doctor smiled. 'Right.' He stood and moved to the controls. 'Have you back in a jiffy. Get that looked at and you can get your back door fixed.'

Ashley watched him as he began to pull levers and push buttons. 'What are you doing to do?' she asked.

He didn't look up. 'Ah I don't know. Usual. Fly around space looking for other people's beeswax to stick my nose into. It's not important.'

Ashley half smiled. 'Thank you.'

He looked to her and nodded, his expression solemn. 'You're welcome.' He replied. He pulled one more lever and the Tardis jerked.

Ashley groaned. 'I'm never going to get used to that.'

The Tardis shuddered again. The Doctor frowned and steadied himself on the side of the controls. 'Oh no you don't…' he frowned, moving around to the crudely placed monitor. 'What are you doing now?'

Ashley narrowed her eyes. 'What's wrong?' she asked, voice flat.

'No no no no!' The Doctor cried, running around the control panel and punching seemingly random buttons. 'Don't you dare, lady! Don't you _dare_ start playing these games again!'

'What is it?' Ashley demanded, her voice strained.

'You stop it, you stop it right now!' The Doctor cried, ignoring Ashley.

'Doctor, what is it?' she yelled.

The Tardis stopped suddenly. The whirring faded away. The Doctor stared at the control panel, jaw slack. Ashley got to her feet slowly. The Doctor ran to the doors and pulled them open.

'If we're not in my back alley again…' Ashley warned weakly. However her threat became no more than a squeak when she looked over the Doctor's shoulder.

They both stepped out into the bright sunlight onto the soft grass. The heat was almost unbearable. They were surrounded by high trees and tropical plants. Wildlife chirped and buzzed all around them, invisible in the foliage.

'Please tell me that we've landed in the botanical gardens.' Ashley sighed, squinting through the light.

'Oh no, I think we're a bit before botanical gardens.' The Doctor replied.

Ahead, the bushes rustled. The Doctor and Ashley stared ahead, wide eyed. A moment later figures emerged from the foliage, stepping slowly and tentatively with bare feet. Torn cloth covered the essential parts of their bodies. Their exposed skin was streaked with dirt. They held long, bamboo spears in their hands.

Ashley cocked her head. 'You have to be kidding me.'

The Doctor frowned. 'What?' he cried in disbelief.

'The rock!' one of the people cried out, pointing towards the Tardis. 'It's the blue rock!'

'What?' the Doctor repeated.

'And the Red Deity!' Another cried, pointing at Ashley.

'_What_?'

The surrounding people in tattered animal skins and tattered clothes dropped to their knees. There were about thirty of them, all face down in the grass with their arms outstretched. Ashley looked towards the Doctor with wide eyes and a confused expression. The Doctor looked back at her.

'_What_?'

**TBC...**

--

_Just a big thanks to everyone who was reading, you're probably the only reason I finished this because I had originally started this about a year ago (before series 3 would you believe xD). I've left the ending open in case I pick it up again, which I probably will if enough people want me too. Again thanks a lot for your comments, they mean a lot! :D (And apologies to anyone who got a bit 'uuurggh' from the slightly gory bits lol!)_


	16. Rewriting Note

**A/N:** I'm re-writing this. Not going to repost it because then everyone would have to update their favourites and all that jazz and that's just too much hassle really, so I'll just be replacing each chapter as I re-write them, and I'll add a little note that it's the rewritten chapter at the bottom. Won't be adding much to be honest, just correcting the spelling mistakes and typos, probably add a couple of new scenes in here and there. Well, if you want to read it then you're more than welcome too lol! But I'm mainly doing this to keep it neat. Because I'm weird and I like things to be neat xD

ANYWHOOOO... Just keep checking back. They'll be no alerts or anything when I replace the chapters, but I'll probably do one a night :P


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